Right-wing identification overtakes left-wing sentiment in Brazil for first time since 2014, Datafolha finds

For the first time since 2014, more Brazilians place themselves on the right than on the left, according to a Datafolha poll released Friday. The survey, conducted during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidency, classified 44% of respondents as right-wing or center-right, against 39% as left-wing or center-left.

The five-point difference falls outside the poll’s two-point margin of error. Datafolha based the classification on questions about social, cultural and economic values. The questionnaire included 10 behavioral questions covering guns, poverty, crime, homosexuality and religion, along with six economic questions on taxes, labor laws and the role of the state.

The balance has shifted considerably since 2022. During Jair Bolsonaro’s government, the left accounted for 49% and the right for 34%. The latest change is concentrated in the behavioral category, where the right now totals 52%, compared with 29% for the left and 20% for the center.

Views on poverty changed sharply. In 2022, 76% attributed poverty to a lack of equal opportunities, while 22% linked it to the laziness of people unwilling to work. The share choosing laziness has now almost doubled to 40%, while the share citing unequal opportunities has fallen to 58%.

Attitudes toward gun ownership also moved. Support for banning gun ownership fell from 63% in 2022 to 55%, while support for the legal right to own a gun rose from 35% to 41%. In the five-group breakdown, the right rose from 9% to 15% and the center-right from 24% to 29%. The center remained at 17%, while the center-left fell from 32% to 26% and the left from 17% to 13%.

Datafolha interviewed 2,004 voters aged 16 and older in 139 municipalities on June 17 and 18. The survey has a 95% confidence level and is registered with Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court under number BR-09956/2026.