President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva widened his lead ahead of Brazil’s October election as challenger Flávio Bolsonaro struggled to overcome tensions within his powerful conservative family, according to a new poll.

Lula leads Bolsonaro by 8 points, 45% to 37%, in a runoff scenario, according to the Genial/Quaest survey published Wednesday. The leftist incumbent held a 6-point advantage over Bolsonaro last month.

Bolsonaro has fallen behind the since the publication of leaked audio messages linking him to the central figure what authorities have branded Brazil’s biggest-ever bank fraud scandal.

The eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro has also spent recent weeks attempting to move past a dispute with his stepmother, after former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro publicly criticized him in a video posted to social media.

More than half of respondents said that Michelle’s criticisms were either totally or partially true, against 16% who saw them as totally false, the survey found.

Bolsonaro is now clashing with Brazil’s Supreme Court after Justice Alexandre de Moraes barred him from visiting his father for 90 days, a period that extends through the first round of the election.

Moraes’ ruling came after Bolsonaro published a letter written by his father, who is currently on house arrest serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss, in an apparent attempt to calm the family feud.

But Moraes said the move violated a previous court order barring the former president from using social media directly or through third parties.

Bolsonaro slammed the decision as “completely disproportionate” and accused Moraes of attempting to interfere in the vote, reigniting a long-running dispute with the top court that he has previously accused of persecuting and censoring right-wing allies.

Lula has also faced potential setbacks since the prior poll. In late June, longtime ally Jaques Wagner stepped down from his role as the government’s Senate leader amid scrutiny over his own links to the Banco Master scandal, the same saga that has weighed on Bolsonaro.

The poll found that 37% of respondents believe Wagner has a “very negative” impact on Lula’s popularity.

Lula has unveiled a series of measures to stimulate the economy and benefit Brazilians ahead of the election. A majority of Brazilians see a new debt relief program from the government as a good idea, while 69% support its efforts to reduce weekly working hours.

Overall, Lula’s approval rating ticked up to 48% while disapproval fell slightly to 47%, both within the poll’s margin of error.

The government is currently awaiting a possible announcement of new tariffs from the U.S., with Wednesday as the deadline the U.S. Trade Representative has set for the conclusion of an investigation into alleged unfair practices by Brazil.

Bolsonaro has urged Donald Trump’s administration, which proposed levies in June as part of the so-called Section 301 process, to avoid punishing Brazil, arguing that it would benefit Lula in the election.

Quaest interviewed 2,004 people between July 10 and 13, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

—With assistance from Robert Jameson.

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