Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party (PT), began the World Cup with approval ratings below forty percent. This has fallen continually from sixty percent before last year’s Confederations Cup, which was rocked by protests over corruption and misuse of public money in preparation for the events.

據巴西《里約時報》網站報道，本屆世界杯開幕時，來自勞工黨的巴西總統迪爾瑪·羅塞夫（Dilma Rousseff）支持率已低于40%。而去年聯合會杯前其支持率高達60%，由于屢屢受到抗議活動的沖擊，這一數字之后持續下降。抗議集中于腐敗行為和世界杯籌備期間的公款濫用。

A study by Ibope showed that approval ratings for Dilma had fallen to 34 percent. No Brazilian president has ever won an election with less than 35 percent support, and at the very least levels of popularity below forty percent suggest the elections would go to a second round with one of the PT’s main rivals, the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, or PSDB, headed by Aécio Neves, or the Brazilian Socialist known as the PSB Party of Eduardo Campos and Marina Silva.

據Ibope機構一項研究顯示，羅塞夫的支持率已跌至34%。巴西歷屆總統贏得大選時支持率從未低過35%，退一步說，受歡迎度在40%以下就表示勞工黨將與自己的一位主要對手進行第二輪選舉，這位對手可能是阿埃西奧·內維斯（Aécio Neves）領導的巴西社會民主黨（Brazilian Social Democratic Party），亦或是愛德華多·坎波斯（Eduardo Campos ）和瑪麗娜·席爾瓦（Marina Silva）的巴西社會主義黨（Brazilian Socialist Party，PSB）

“In many ways the World Cup is the electoral campaign by proxy… The Rousseff government is being portrayed as lacking leadership and ability to plan efficiently,” explained Carlos Caicedo, Senior Principal Analyst for Latin America at IHS Security Risk to The Rio Times. “The staging of a successful World Cup would be critical to prove critics wrong. A World Cup fiasco is certain to cost votes to Rousseff and the PT.”

“世界杯在許多方面代表了選舉活動……羅塞夫政府被認為缺乏領導能力，做不出高效的計劃，”信息處理服務公司（IHS）拉美高級首席分析師卡洛斯·凱塞多（Carlos Caicedo）解釋道：“世界杯的成功舉辦將有力證明那些批評是錯的，而慘敗的話，羅塞夫和勞工黨的票數也必然損失嚴重。”

During the opening game, played in S?o Paulo’s Itaquer?o stadium last Thursday, the president was met with choruses of vulgar chants. Anger at Rousseff and the PT is widespread, with popular demonstrations taking place simultaneously across the country, with widespread protesting in S?o Paulo and over a thousand people on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

6月13日在圣保羅伊塔蓋拉球場舉行的揭幕戰期間，羅塞夫遭到球迷臟話“問候”。民眾對她和勞工黨的憤怒到處可見：全國各地同時發起的示威，圣保羅遍地的抗議活動，以及里約熱內盧州一千多人的街頭游行。

Recent surveys show that over sixty percent of Brazilians think the World Cupwould be bad for Brazil, a dramatic fall since 2007 when Brazil won the bid, when as much as 79 percent of the population believed it would contribute positively to the country.

最近的調查皆表明，超六成巴西人認為世界杯對巴西不利，而2007年巴西贏得主辦權時，79%的民眾相信這場盛事肯定會對國家有所貢獻，該數字的下降頗具戲劇性。

For many Brazilians, nothing short of a victory – Brazil’s sixth in World Cup history – would be enough to convince them that the controversy was worth it. The loss for Brazil “increases the risk that disgruntled fans, together with anti-World Cup protesters, get together to stage demonstrations… exacerbating the declining trend in popularity of the Rousseff government,” continued Caicedo.

對許多巴西人來說，在世界杯上第六次奪冠這樣的勝利完全能讓其相信此類爭論是值得的。而巴西輸了的話，“怨憤的球迷與世界杯反對者聚集發起示威的風險就會增加……羅塞夫政府民眾支持率持續下降的趨勢也會加劇。”凱塞多繼續說道。

In her televised speech on the eve of the opening game, President Rousseff defended the handling of the event and promised Brazilians that the World Cup would leave a lasting legacy for them. “The airports, the metros, the BRTs and the stadiums won’t return in the tourists’ luggage. They will stay here, benefiting all of us.”

在揭幕戰前夜的電視講話中，羅塞夫總統為舉辦這場盛事進行了辯解，向巴西人民承諾世界杯會給他們留下永久的遺產。“機場，地鐵，快速公交系統和各處體育場都不會被游客打包帶走，它們會留在這里，造福我們所有人。”

In response to the charge that this money would be better spent on public services such as health or education, she highlighted that Brazil spent 212 times more on health and education (R$1.7 trillion) than the R$8 billion spent on stadiums, and defended her government’s legacy.

有指控稱花在世界杯上的錢用于醫療、教育等公共服務上會更好，羅塞夫回應時強調，巴西在醫療教育上的開支為1.7萬億巴西雷亞爾，是體育場建設（80億巴西雷亞爾）的212倍。同時，她也為政府的政績辯護。

“Our country produced one of the most successful processes of wealth redistribution, employment rises and social inclusion,” she explained, with inequality diminishing significantly as 36 million Brazilians were taken out of poverty by policies such as Bolsa Família.

“我們的國家自創了一套最有效的方法，成功用在了財富再分配，提高就業以及社會融合上，”她闡述道，“諸如家庭補助金之類的政策幫助了3600萬巴西人民脫貧，不平等現象得到了大大改善。”

The PSDB and PSB have remained largely quiet on the issue of the World Cup. As Caicedo explained, “the opposition is waiting for the right moment to take the government to task for all the glaring inefficiencies and marked improvisation.”

社會民主黨和社會主義黨則在世界杯問題上大體保持沉默。凱塞多解釋說：“反對派正在等待，時機成熟，他們就會針對政府一切有目共睹的低效行為和臨場應變做出批評。”

However, following Rousseff’s televised speech, the PSDB declared their intention to enter a legal challenge for using the opening of the World Cup as electoral propaganda. “This is using public money to make a political campaign,” said Aécio Neves.

不過，在羅塞夫的電視講話之后，社會民主黨聲稱打算對其提出法律質疑，理由是懷疑羅塞夫將世界杯開幕式用作選舉宣傳。“此舉就是在用公款進行政治競選，”阿埃西奧·內維斯表示。

（譯者 魚麗之宴 編輯 齊磊）