Low approval ratings for Brazil's acting president
Just 11.3 percent of Brazilians support the government of Brazil's acting president Michel Temer, according to a survey released Wednesday.
The weak approval ratings mirror the historically low public opinion of Dilma Rousseff, who received an 11 percent approval rating before she was suspended as president in May.
Despite the weak approval number, just 28 percent of Brazilians consider Temer's administration to be "bad" or "very bad," compared to Rousseff's negative evaluation of 62.4 percent, said the survey commissioned by Brazil's National Confederation of Transport.
Since 2011 Temer had served as Rousseff's vice president. But in the weeks leading up to her impeachment their relationship grew increasingly bitter, with Rousseff accusing Temer of orchestrating a "parliamentary coup" against her.
Rousseff will face an impeachment trial on charges that she illegally concealed government shortfalls using creative accounting during her 2014 reelection.
If convicted by two-thirds of the full Senate, she will lose the presidency for good, a decision that could come in August as the Rio de Janeiro Olympics are in full swing.
Temer is embroiled in his own scandal, after revelations implicated several of his cabinet members and prominent figures in his PMDB party in a multi-billion dollar graft scandal engulfing the national oil company Petrobras.
The 75-year-old interim president has lost two ministers in just 20 days, as his government struggles to stabilize and gain legitimacy amid a severe economic recession.
According to the new survey 54.8 percent of Brazilians believe Temer's government "is equal to Dilma Rousseff's and that no change has happened in the country," though 62.4 percent did agree with the decision to suspend Rousseff.
Although Rousseff was not formally accused in connection to the Petrobras corruption -- which caused the state to lose more than $2 billion -- 66.9 percent of those polled think the suspended president is guilty of participating.
Just over 2,000 people were surveyed, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.