BRASILIA, Brazil
On the eve of the kickoff of the World Cup, Brazil has successfully delivered just 51.7 percent of the projects that were planned to improve urban transport and airports in its host cities.
According to a survey by news service G1, the government had promised to expand, build, or otherwise improve 74 urban transport projects and 13 airports. Of these 87, 32 won’t be ready until the tournament is over, and ten are slated for inauguration during the tournament. Of 45 projects that have already been inaugurated, G1 found that 15 are not fully completed.
Brazil has struggled to deliver on ambitious promises it made when it won the World Cup -- due to begin on Thursday -- in 2007, scrambling to deliver its 12 host stadiums on time, as well as transport projects. Construction has been happening around the clock on some projects as the kick-off date approaches, and at least eight workers have been killed at World Cup construction projects.
On Wednesday, President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated Salvador’s new metro, just two days before the city, Brazil’s third largest, hosts a match between Spain and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, a test match less than two weeks ago at Sao Paulo’s Itaquera, where the opening match will be played, was attended by fewer than 40,000 people because the remaining temporary seats, which expand capacity to 70,000, had not yet been tested by firefighters.
In Fortaleza, travelling football fans might board their flights through a makeshift tented area, instead of a new terminal, while Brasília’s airport was flooded last week during an unexpected rainstorm.
Strikes ahead of the Cup have caused serious inconvenience to residents, while protests -- although on a smaller scale than last year’s -- have continued to highlight overspending on unfinished works. Opinion polls would suggest that -- despite Brazil’s famous love of football -- all of this has dragged the country’s enthusiasm for the World Cup down: Six out of ten Brazilians believe hosting the World Cup will be a bad thing for Brazil.
Aecio Neves, Brazil's presidential hopeful standing against Rousseff in October’s election, may stand to gain from this, David Fleischer, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Brasilia told the Anadolu Agency. A poll published Wednesday showed Neves, of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, climbing 5%, while Rousseff’s numbers remained steady.
"Neves is hitting her harder now," Fleischer said, arguing that Neves was benefitting from the logistical problems of the Cup more than presidential hopeful and socialist leader Eduardo Campos. "Although I’m not yet convinced that Neves has a good strategy to take advantage of it," Fleischer said.
"Over the next couple of days we will probably see some nasty protests and black blocs will probably come out, so we’ll see then how Neves reacts," he added.
The vox populi poll, published in magazine Carta Capital, showed that Rousseff still enjoys a large lead, with 40%, and would win the election in the first round while Neves rose to 21%. But popularity for the left-leaning president has been eroding in the face of strikes and a stagnating economy.
Fleischer said that Brazilians appeared palpably less excited about this World Cup than in previous years, displaying fewer flags and decorations.
"This Cup has left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth because of the extraordinarily large expenses in building 12 stadiums, which originally [Rousseff] said the private sector would do most of, but the public sector has actually done most of, as well as everything being incomplete, and Brazil being badmouthed all over the world," he said.
"Plus, despite all the promises made last year about improvements to the quality of health, education, security, and infrastructure, nothing has changed," Fleischer added. "So there is a general malaise and dissatisfaction in Brazil, which is all blamed on Rousseff."
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