Most Brazilians agree that the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is off to a slow start. In a recent poll by Ipec, 48 percent of respondents said the president had achieved less than they expected in his first 100 days. In a similar poll by Datafolha, 51 percent of respondents said Lula had accomplished less than they anticipated in the first quarter of his new term.
Sworn in on January 1, Lula moved quickly to reverse some of the signature policies of the Jair Bolsonaro administration, such as a permissive gun control agenda, lenient environmental policies, and a lack of government transparency.
But on January 8, pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators left a pro-coup protest camp near the Army headquarters in Brasília and stormed the buildings housing all three branches of government. Since the riots, further evidence of coup-mongering within the military has been uncovered, prompting the government to expend considerable energy replacing hundreds of military personnel from positions related to the security of presidential facilities, and reducing the military’s influence over Brazil’s intelligence agency.
Deputy Justice Minister Ricardo Cappelli led a federal intervention in the Brazilian capital’s security apparatus for most of January.
Even taking into account the diversion caused by the riots, the Lula administration has yet to present any major policy changes. Back in...
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