Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians flooded the streets on Sunday in
the biggest ever protests calling for President Dilma Rousseff’s
removal, reflecting rising popular anger that could encourage Congress
to impeach the leftist leader.
The demonstrations were the latest in a wave of
anti-government rallies that lost momentum late last year but have
regained strength as a sweeping corruption investigation nears
Rousseff’s inner circle.
From the Amazon jungle city of Manaus to the business hub of Sao
Paulo and the capital Brasilia, protesters marched in a nationwide call
for Rousseff to step down, raising pressure on lawmakers to back ongoing
impeachment proceedings against her that just a few weeks ago appeared
to be doomed.
Police estimates from more than 150 cities compiled by news website
G1 showed around 3 million Brazilians participated in the
demonstrations. Some police estimates of previous protests have proved
to be exaggerated.
Polling firm Datafolha estimated 500,000 demonstrators in Sao Paulo,
the biggest rally in the city’s history and more than twice the size of a
major protest a year ago. The military police put the figure at 1.4
million at the height of the demonstration.
Government sources contacted by Reuters acknowledged the
demonstrations were bigger than anti-government rallies in March 2015,
which gathered as many as 1 million people.
In the skyscraper-lined Avenue Paulista in Sao Paulo, a sea of
protesters wearing Brazil’s yellow-and-green national colors chanted
“Dilma out” and waved banners that read “Stop the corruption” while
music blared from nearby trucks.
“The country is at a standstill and we are fighting to keep our
company afloat,” said small business owner Monica Giana Micheletti, 49,
at the Sao Paulo demonstration. “We have reached rock bottom.”
Many blame Rousseff for sinking the economy into its worst recession
in at least 25 years. Opinion polls show that more than half of
Brazilians favor the impeachment of the president, re-elected for a
second four-year term in 2014.
Rousseff, who insists she will not quit, is the latest leftist leader
in Latin America to face upheaval as a decade-long commodities boom
that fueled breakneck growth and social spending comes to an abrupt end.
Ahead of the demonstrations, tensions were high after Sao Paulo state
prosecutors requested on Thursday the arrest of Rousseff’s predecessor
and political mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on
money-laundering charges. A judge still has to decide on the request, which can be rejected.
As in previous protests, Sunday’s rallies were led by middle-class
Brazilians angry over growing allegations of corruption in Rousseff’s
administration. No violence was reported.
Poor Brazilians, who form the base of the ruling Workers’ Party
support, have not turned out in great numbers in recent protests. But
their support for Rousseff has faded as unemployment rises and inflation
climbs.
“This government helped many people buy homes, cars and electronics,
but we still don’t have health, education and basic sanitation,” said
Paulo Santos, a waiter who stopped at the demonstration which packed the
beach-front avenue in Rio de Janeiro before heading to work.
Anti-political establishment
Many protesters voiced support for Sergio Moro, the judge overseeing
the two-year-old investigation into a network of political kick-backs
and bribes centered on state oil company Petrobras. Some held banners
that read “We are all Moro” after the judge’s uncompromising tactics
have been criticized by the government.
The demonstrators took aim at politicians from across the spectrum,
including Rousseff’s opponents, as they vented their frustration with a
ruling class that has been widely exposed in the graft probe, known as
‘Operation Carwash’. Dozens of companies and senior business executives
have also been implicated.
The head of the opposition PSDB party, Aecio Neves, and several of
his colleagues were insulted by protesters when they took part in the
demonstration in Sao Paulo, local media reported.
“Brazil needs to find a new and virtuous path and we will help the
country find that path,” said Neves, who narrowly lost the 2014 election
to Rousseff and has called for new polls.
In Brasilia, protesters inflated a giant doll of Lula wearing a
striped prison uniform and chained to a ball that read “Operation
Carwash”. Police estimated about 100,000 protesters took part, but that
figure could not be independently confirmed.
For Brasilia-based political analyst Leonardo Barreto, the massive
scale of Sunday’s demonstrations could accelerate impeachment hearings
in Congress.
“Today’s protests give legitimacy to this process,” he said. “If the
government fails to react, impeachment will move faster.” Popular
discontent grew in recent weeks after a ruling party lawmaker reportedly
testified under a plea bargain and accused Rousseff and Lula of trying
to hamper the Petrobras investigation.
The corruption scandal has already strained Rousseff’s ties with her
main coalition partner, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).
At its national convention on Saturday, the PMDB said it would decide
in a month whether to break with the government. Party insiders said
the mood of the country would be decisive.
If Rousseff is impeached by Congress, the leader of the PMDB,
Vice-President Michel Temer, would take office. In an effort to analyse
the fallout from the protests, Rousseff met with a handful of ministers
at her home in Brasilia, a presidential aide said.
Rousseff’s press office welcomed the peaceful nature of the
demonstrations, saying it reflected the maturity of the country’s
democracy.
Small groups of a few hundreds of her supporters wearing red shirts also marched in several cities.
Shares in Brazilian companies and Brazil’s real currency have surged
in recent weeks as investors bet that a change in government would lift
business and consumer confidence and rescue an economy that contracted
3.8 percent last year.
Political tensions have stalled Rousseff’s legislative agenda, which
included measures to limit public spending and overhaul a costly pension
system to regain investors’ trust.
(REUTERS)
