Once called the world's most popular politician, Brazil’s Lula faces plummeting approval

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was once called the most popular politician on Earth by then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Those times are long gone.

Halfway through his latest four-year term, Lula's approval rating has plunged down to levels never before seen in any of this three administrations. Brazil's economy is growing and its unemployment is decreasing, but people are complaining about higher food prices and crime.

Lula’s approval rating has dropped to 24%, according to the country’s most prominent pollster Datafolha in its latest February poll, which interviewed 2,007 people across Brazil with a margin of error of 2 percentage points. That is an all-time low across his time in office from 2003 to 2010, and since he took office again in 2023. The previous record was 28% in 2005. Surveys by other firms also show a rise in discontent.

And in an apparent attempt to claw back support, the government on Thursday is hosting an event in the capital, Brasilia.

“The objective is to present the achievements of the Federal Government in the first two years,” the presidential palace said in a statement this week.

Lula’s difficulties come against a Brazilian political landscape in upheaval, with his predecessor and bitter rival former President Jair Bolsonaro due to stand trial on charges that the right-wing politician attempted a coup.

The plunge in support also comes as Lula, 79, weighs whether to run for re-election next year.

For many observers, the increase in the cost of food is a top reason for Lula’s fall in popularity. Food and drinks were nearly 8% more expensive in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to Brazil's national statistics agency.

“Food inflation has a direct impact on people’s lives,” said Carla Beni, a professor of economics at Getulio Vargas Foundation, pointing especially to the rise of the cost of meat, a staple of Brazilians' diet.

Beni said prices have soared due to the impact of climate change on crops and the strengthening of the dollar against the real.

An uptick in food prices particularly affects the poor – Lula’s historical support base. A poll by private firm Genial/Quaest released Wednesday showed a surge in disapproval among women, Black people and in Brazil’s poorer northeast. In six months, the percentage of respondents who disapprove of Lula's administration in the northeast jumped from 26% to 46%. And more women have a poor opinion of the government than they do a positive one.

“Not only are things expensive, but we’re also living in a dangerous country,” said Anderson Vianna, 45, a sales representative who lives Rio de Janeiro's low-income northern zone. “If you have your phone in hand, you can’t relax,” added the man who voted for Lula in 2002, 2006 and 2022.

To reign in food inflation, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin announced on March 6 that the government would reduce import taxes to zero on a series of products, including meat and coffee.

But the measure does not appear to have turned the public’s perception of the government. João Feres, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, said Lula’s government has a myriad of public policies but “the problem is communicating the results of these policies.”

A blow to Lula came in January, when his government said it would increase oversight of financial transactions, including Brazil’s popular instant payment system PIX.

That sparked a flurry of fake news pushed by far-right politicians close to Bolsonaro, who said the government planned to impose a new tax on PIX payments. The administration denied the accusation, but ended up backtracking on the step.

“That was the first point that really damaged Lula’s image,” said Paulo Feldmann, an economist at the University of Sao Paulo.

Crime and violence are other top concerns.

“Since the end of restriction of movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's in first place” in the ranking of Brazilians' worries, said Marcos Calliari, the country's director of pollster IPSOS.

Over the weekend, the video of an influencer inadvertently filming the moment her phone was stolen at the Lollapalooza festival in Sao Paulo went viral. Almost one in 10 Brazilians had their phone stolen between July 2023 and June 2024, according to Datafolha.

Lula has sharpened his tone against thieves in recent weeks. “We will not allow criminals to take over our country,” he said on March 19.

The justice ministry is planning to send a bill to Congress that would increase the maximum sentence for receiving and benefiting from stolen cellphones from eight to up to 12 years, it said in a statement on Friday.

Lula’s government is also preparing a wider bill on security.

To woo back voters, the government is also counting on a proposal to cut taxation for the poor. Mid-March, the administration sent a bill to Congress that seeks to exempt individuals earning up to 5000 reais (around $880) per month from income tax, up from around 2,300 reais currently.

If Congress approves the bill, observers say it could be a big win for Lula, though it's uncertain whether it will restore his popularity.

With Lula struggling in the polls and Bolsonaro barred from running until 2030, the next election is much more unpredictable than the previous one, Beni said.

Vianna, the sales representative, said he is disappointed and is not sure he would vote for Lula again. “We need a renewal.”

FILE - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attends a summit at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

FILE - Police ride past residents in a bulldozer they use to clear street barricades during a security operation against organized crime in the Mare Complex favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

FILE - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, addresses members of the judiciary, parliament and state governors, regarding the implementation of the Unified Public Security System to combat organized crime, at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

FILE - A boy receives food donated by a social project at the Turano favela, in Rio de Janeiro, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

FILE - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leans over to talk with first lady Rosangela da Silva, during the opening event of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty meeting, on the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Meetings in Rio de Janeiro, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

FILE - Former President Jair Bolsonaro talks to reporters after arriving at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, June 30, 2023. Bolsonaro was barred from running for office again until 2030 after a panel of judges concluded that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country's electronic voting system. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

FILE - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and first lady Rosangela da Silva attend a pro-democracy event marking two years since the alleged coup attempt when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded government buildings and called for military intervention, in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)

FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, react during the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

FILE - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves at the start of the Independence Day military parade, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.

It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Here is the latest:

U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.

Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.

The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.

Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.

The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.

Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.

Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.

Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.

It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”

This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.

It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.

It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”

Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.

Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.

It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.

Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.

The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.

Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)