In Brazil, support grows for suspended President
June 11, 2016, 5:22 am

In the first widespread organized demonstrations against Temer, thousands of Brazilians gathered at protests across the country, including this one in Sao Paolo on 10 June 2016 [Image: PT Brasil]

If reinstated, Rousseff has said she would call a referendum on holding early elections. According to surveys by Brazilian media, up to a dozen of the 55 senators who voted last month to put Rousseff on trial are now undecided. If just a couple of those change sides, the Temer camp would lose the 54 votes it needs – two-thirds of the 81-seat Senate – to convict Rousseff.

On Friday, activists, student associations, trade unions, took to the streets to protests against what they term a “coup” and the functioning of the interim government led by Michel Temer.

Organisers claimed 100,000 people attended the protests across the country. No official estimates were made available.

“Temer, as a constitutional lawyer you know that what you did was not right. Give the power back to the people and to Dilma and try to gain the Presidency in the next election,” Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff’s predecessor and political mentor, said at a gathering in Sao Paulo.

“The most important thing for the social movements gathered here is stopping the impeachment, stopping the coup,” said Vagner Freitas, head of Brazil’s largest trade union CUT.

President Rousseff was suspended on May 12 when the Brazilian Senate voted 55-22 to put her on trial for allegedly breaking budget laws.

Meanwhile almost 20,000 people gathered in Rio on Friday to protest against the ouster, organizers said, where prominent local politicians participated in the citizens protest calling for Rousseff’s return to office.

Cities like Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and Recife also saw anti-government protests.

In an interview to government TV channel TV Brasil on Thursday, Rousseff said the impeachment process against her represents a breaking of the democratic pact.

“We must consult the population to rebuild a constitutional pact that was broken by the impeachment process,” Rousseff said.

If she manages to get back to office, she will consult the population about the path national politics should take, Rousseff added.

A political scandal that cost the jobs of two of Interim President Michel Temer’s cabinet ministers weakened the reforms push that Temer was claiming to lead.

Within the space of one week, Temer had to drop Planning Minister Romero Juca, a key figure in getting austerity measures approved by Congress, and the minister in charge of fighting corruption, Fabiano Silveira, after leaked recordings suggested they had tried to derail the Petrobras investigation.

The political turmoil dragged down markets only 20 days into Temer’s presidency.

The scandals have also weakened the resolve of some senators to oust suspended President Rousseff.

The impeachment has now become an election between Rousseff and Temer, Senator Cristovam Buarque told Reuters. Soccer-star-turned-Senator Romario was among those who have announced they are no longer certain to vote in favor of removing Rousseff.

Analyst Sam Cowie, writing for The BRICS Post, says the suspension of Rousseff, “however dubious, happened through a legal process”.

“But now, unpopular and otherwise unelectable Temer is pushing through reforms to roll back Brazil’s social safety net, measures that clearly wouldn’t receive popular support through vote,” Cowie says.

Latin America’s largest economy shrank for a fifth straight quarter in early 2016 as political instability and the sweeping corruption scandal centred on state-run oil company Petrobras weighed on activity. Gross domestic product fell 5.4 per cent from a year earlier and unemployment has hit 11.2 per cent.

TBP and Agencies