Distrust in Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) reached 48% of Brazilians, the highest level since the series began in 2012, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday. The number rose five percentage points from March, when it stood at 43%.
It is the first time the court, the country's highest, tops the institute's distrust ranking. Some 48% of respondents say they do not trust the STF, against 45% for Congress, 45% for political parties and 42% for the presidency. In earlier rounds, the top spot had belonged to the parties, Congress or the presidency.
Only the court lost ground
The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, which commissioned the survey with TV Globo, describes the result as an outlier. Distrust in the seven other institutions measured, among them the presidency, Congress, the press and the Armed Forces, held steady or fell since March. Distrust in parties dropped from 52% to 45%. At the court, the movement ran the other way: those who say they trust it a lot fell from 16% to 14%, and those who trust it a little, from 38% to 35%.
The poll ran as the court faces an open crisis. According to G1, the news site of TV Globo, the turmoil deepened after Justice André Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and a phone number attributed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes and Justice Gilmar Mendes criticized how Mendonça handled the case. Moraes says Mendonça committed irregularities and bypassed procedures that apply to investigations of officials with privileged standing. Gilmar says his colleague acted for political-electoral reasons. Mendonça denies the accusations.
Folha reports that Datafolha heard 2,001 people in 125 municipalities between Tuesday and Thursday; G1 put the sample at 2,002 interviews on September 15 and 16. Both outlets cite a margin of error of two percentage points. The poll is registered with the electoral court as BR-04029/2026.
The extraordinary session called on Tuesday by Chief Justice Edson Fachin ended without a decision on the Federal Police report. Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case and has up to 90 days to return it to the full bench. The deadline runs out in December, after the elections. If he does not return it, the case is automatically freed to go back on the docket.