Support for Mandetta mobilizes 60% of the political debate, five times more than the president’s support group on Twitter
With the discussion going back and forth regarding the minister’s dismissal, the group with no alignment migrated into the opposition group, which became the strongest in the debate about the covid-19; on WhatsApp, the anti-China sentiment and the promotion of chloroquine remain relevant among the right wing
Updated 14 de April, 2020 at 10:27 am
Profiles with no alignment join the discussion and increase opposition to Bolsonaro
Since two weeks ago, since the peak of mentions to the coronavirus in Brazil, there has been a decrease in the presence of groups with no political alignment in the discussion — that is, profiles talking about public health, the quarantine, entertainment and daily life. However, with the debate about the potential dismissal of the minister of Health this Monday (06), the main influencers in these groups migrated to the political opposition group against Bolsonaro (which reached up to 60% of the interactions, compared to 12% of the pro-government network), reiterating the support for keeping Mandetta in office. The minister himself “migrated” his profile to this group. The engagement about the minister’s situation also caused the daily debate about the pandemic to be higher than 4 million tweets for the first time in a week.
The attacks against the minister
Since last Saturday (04), the articulation of political attacks against Mandetta was intensified on Twitter among the pro-Bolsonaro group, despite the wide support for the minister’s permanence in office throughout the political spectrum. The two main groups opposing the minister base their arguments on supporting chloroquine as a solution for the coronavirus (and the nomination of Osmar Terra as minister) and on the supposed disclosure of advertising contracts renewed by Mandetta and signed during Dilma Rousseff’s administration. This Monday (06), however, the pro-Mandetta movement captured a large part of the discussion on Twitter, although there was also criticism coming from left-wing profiles.
