Big protests across Brazil put more pressure on president
Brazil: Gov. regroups after huge protests against president
(about 11 hours later)
SAO PAULO — Mammoth demonstrations across Brazil are putting even more pressure on embattled President Dilma Rousseff as she heads into a tough week for her attempt to survive impeachment proceedings in Congress.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called a meeting with her closest advisers and congressional leaders on Monday, a day after nationwide demonstrations urging her ouster brought millions of people into the streets.
According to police estimates, a total of 3 million people took to the streets in 200 cities Sunday calling on the president to resign amid widespread anger over corruption investigations and the worst recession in years.
With an estimated 3 million people thought to have taken part in more than 100 protests nationwide, Brazil’s top newspapers hailed Sunday’s events as the largest political demonstrations in the country’s history and said they’d succeeded in further complicating Rousseff’s already difficult situation. Rousseff is fighting impeachment proceedings in Congress amid the worst recession in decades and a sprawling corruption investigation that has closed in on key figures in her Workers’ Party.
Sometime this week, lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a Rousseff foe, is expected to form a commission to begin impeachment proceedings over allegations of fiscal mismanagement. He doesn’t have any say on the panel’s membership, but on Saturday members of his centrist PMDB party pledged to be more independent from Rousseff’s administration.
The Folha de S. Paulo daily said Sunday’s anti-Rousseff demonstrations were larger than mass protests in 1984 demanding direct presidential elections amid the country’s military dictatorship.
Rousseff, who has said she won’t resign, is also under pressure from members of her own Workers’ Party, whose leaders want her mentor and predecessor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to intervene by taking a Cabinet post and bringing in others of his choice. Yet Silva is awaiting a decision by a Sao Paulo judge on whether he will be detained on corruption charges.
“Surprised by the strong turnout on Sunday, the government has been put on alert that it needs to act quickly” to avoid Rousseff’s impeachment, a report in Folha said Monday.
Sunday’s protests add to the already-difficult position of Rousseff, who in addition to the impeachment effort is faced with a sprawling investigation by federal prosecutors into corruption at state-run oil giant Petrobras that has moved closer to her inner circle in recent weeks.
Rousseff’s meeting Monday morning in the Planalto presidential palace was seen as an attempt to plot a way forward and secure congressional support that will be necessary to halt impeachment proceedings. Lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a Rousseff foe, is expected to form a commission to begin impeachment proceedings sometime this week.
In a statement after Sunday’s protests, Rousseff said, “The peaceful character of this Sunday’s demonstrations shows the maturity of a country that knows how to co-exist with different opinions and knows how to secure respect to its laws and institutions.”
In a statement Monday, the U.S.-based Eurasia Group political and economic risk consulting firm rated at 65 percent the probability that Rousseff will not serve out her term, which ends in 2016.
The biggest demonstration took place in Brazil’s economic capital, Sao Paulo, a bastion of simmering dissatisfaction with Rousseff and the Workers’ Party. The respected Datafolha polling agency estimated about 500,000 people took part in the demonstration, while police estimated turnout at nearly three times that number.
“We now think an impeachment vote will occur by May, and Rousseff will not survive it,” the statement said.
About 1 million people joined the anti-Rousseff demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, organizers estimated.
Last week, Rousseff categorically ruled out resigning, saying it was objectionable to demand the resignation of an elected president without concrete evidence the leader had violated the constitution.
Analysts said the strong turnout could lead to the unraveling of her fragile governing coalition.
The demonstrations, overwhelmingly comprised of the white, older middle-class people who have railed against Rousseff for years, may have weakened the government. But they don’t seem to have strengthened the opposition. The crowd in Sao Paulo, where the respected Datafolha polling agency estimated turnout at half a million people, booed opposition politician Aecio Neves, who narrowly lost to Rousseff in the 2013 presidential run-off.
“There is a situation of ungovernability,” said Francisco Fonseca, a political science professor at Pontifical Catholic University in Sao Paulo. “The president has few cards.”
While many were bracing for violence during Sunday’s protests, no major incidents were reported. In a statement late Sunday, the government highlighted “the peaceful character” of the demonstrations, saying they underscored “the maturity of a country that knows how to co-exist with different opinions and knows how to secure respect to its laws and institutions.”
Fonseca added, though, that the protests showed a “generalized discontent with the political system” without necessarily shoring up any particular opposition party or politician.
Crowds in the yellow and green hues of the Brazilian flag brandished signs reading “Workers’ Party out.” But demonstrators across Brazil stressed that their anger extended well beyond Rousseff and her party, saying the “Car Wash” investigation into corruption at Petrobras has compromised the entire political class.
“Of course I want to see Rousseff booted out,” said Maria de Lima Pimenta, a retired schoolteacher who was at the anti-Rousseff march along Rio’s Copacabana Beach. “But then the problem becomes, who will replace her? They’re all crooks.”
Protest organizers also stressed that the movement isn’t linked to any opposition political party, and signs endorsing parties were largely absent from the demonstrations.
Several top politicians did turn out, including Aecio Neves, the opposition politician who narrowly lost to Rousseff in the 2013 presidential run-off election, and Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin. But both were booed, and like other politicians who ventured out to the demonstrations, they beat a rapid retreat.
The uncontested star of the protests was Sergio Moro, the federal judge in charge of the Petrobras case. While demonstrators denounced politicians of all stripes who have been implicated in the scandal, many brandished signs thanking Moro.
The Petrobras scandal has ensnarled key figures from Rousseff’s party, including Silva, as well as members of opposition parties.
Political tensions in Brazil have spiked since earlier this month when Silva was briefly detained by police for questioning as part of the Petrobras probe. Silva’s supporters and detractors scuffled in front of his apartment in the Sao Paulo area. On Wednesday, the tension rose again when Silva was hit with money-laundering charges in a separate case.
Rousseff said at a Friday news conference that she would not quit, saying it was objectionable to demand the resignation of an elected president without concrete evidence the leader had violated the constitution.
“If there is no reason to do so, I will not step down,” she said, calling on journalists at the event in Brasilia to “at least attest that I don’t look like someone who is going to step down.”
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Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese reported this story in Sao Paulo and AP writer Jenny Barchfield reported from Rio de Janeiro. AP writer Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
