BRASILIA: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has managed to keep her popularity intact in her first year, an opinion poll showed Friday, despite a cooling economy and the loss of six of her ministers due to scandals involving alleged corruption.
Brazil's first female president has an approval rating of 72 percent, according to the survey of 2,000 people conducted by the Ibope polling firm and released by the National Industry Confederation (CNI). That compared with 73 percent in the first few months of her mandate, according to the same poll in April.
Rather than tarnishing her image, a series of resignations by ministers over accusations including influence peddling and misuse of public funds has created a public perception that Rousseff is living up to a promise to be tough on corruption, winning her plaudits in the foreign press such as "Dynamite Dilma".
"You have a population that's fairly satisfied with the economy and that is reflected in its evaluation of the government," said Renato da Fonseca, CNI's executive research manager.
"President Dilma has practically shielded herself from the effects of this political crisis People are blaming the ministers more than the president."
Unlike her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who enthralled crowds with his folksy charm, Rousseff is rather media-shy and engages with her audience in a more sober style.
A trained economist and career civil servant, Rousseff was elected with a mandate to continue Lula's progress in lifting millions out of poverty and reduce the stark gap between the resource-rich country's wealthy and poor.
After red-hot growth of 7.5 percent in 2010, Brazil's government expects the economy to expand between 3 and 4 percent in 2012 as the effects of financial crises abroad wash up on the country's shores, slowing demand for exports.
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