A majority of Brazil’s citizens claim that they are no longer interested in the 2018 World Cup according to a recently published survey. The survey result, which may come as a shock to many, was published by DataFolha in Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
According to the survey, 53 percent of citizens said they weren’t interested in the tournament, with women, at 61 percent, and persons between the ages of 35 and 44, at 57 percent, ranking among the most apathetic.
Family members who earn less than US$ 510 per month also expressed a lack of interest in the competition that the South American country has won five times.
DataFolha interviewed 2,824 people in 174 municipalities between last Thursday and Friday to complete the survey, which has a margin of error of two percentage points.
Brazil’s participation in this year’s World Cup takes place in a tense political and economic climate.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country’s most popular politician and currently leading in all pre-election polls, has been held in prison on corruption and money laundering charges since April 7.
The nation has recently experienced two weeks of roadblocks, which created widespread food and fuel shortages, wiped US$ 11 billion off the market value of the country’s majority state-owned oil company Petrobras and forced its CEO, Pedro Parente, to resign.
The country’s Senate-imposed president, Michel Temer, has a three percent approval rating making him the most unpopular president in recent Brazilian history. Temer, his government and cabinet appointees have faced a series of corruption allegations.
Temer’s administration has also actively pursued a program of privatization of state assets and public companies. The program includes the privatization of airports, oil blocks, hydropower plants and other strategic, government-owned entities. A 20-year freeze on federal spending and cuts in pension benefits have also been implemented.
The military takeover of all the security forces in charge of the state of Rio de Janeiro has resulted in a doubling of massacres and a significant increase in shootouts, according to a new report by the Intervention Observatory at Cândido Mendes University.
Seu Jornal reported that Brazil, for the first time in its history, reached a homicide rate of more than 30 murders for every 100,000 residents. The South American country yielded another milestone in 2016, with more than 61,600 homicides that year and 71 percent of the victims being people of African or Indigenous descent.
Brazil’s first 2018 World Cup match will be against Switzerland on Sunday.
teleSUR