Despite the unprecedented displays of public anger at Brazil’s political establishment, in which protesters waved blow-up dolls of Lula dressed in prison uniform, the former president is expected to accept a position in Rousseff’s cabinet, which would give him immunity from investigation ordered by federal judge Moro.
Advertisement
The protests build on a series of demonstrations a year ago that demanded the impeachment of President Rousseff.
Brazil’s real fell as speculation mounted that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would be named a cabinet minister, potentially shielding him from prosecution and lowering expectations of a change in government.
Even before Sunday’s mass show of discontent Rousseff’s main coalition partner, the Democratic Movement of Brazil, signalled at a party conference on Saturday that it is preparing to abandon her administration within a month.
An attempt to impeach the country’s first female president began previous year but fizzled out on technicalities.
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 hard situation.
Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city and an opposition stronghold, said as many as 1.4 million protesters took part with many focusing their march on Paulista Avenue.
The size and extent of Sunday’s protests come at a politically disastrous moment for Rousseff who on Friday was forced to deny reports she was resigned to losing power.
The president faces impeachment proceedings over alleged fiscal mismanagement with the country in the throes of the worst recession in decades and amid a sprawling investigation into corruption at the state-run oil giant Petrobras.
The Petrobras scandal has not yet touched President Rousseff directly, but many of her close aides are under investigation or have been imprisoned, reported the Guardian.
The judge, Sergio Moro, is spearheading of a massive investigation into the Petrobras scandal, which has upended the political and business worlds in Brazil. Lula and many Workers’ Party allies have said more spending is necessary to revert dwindling support for the government.
Almost 1.5 million people attended the rally in Brazil’s largest city, according to the new SmartLok technology of the StoreSmarts Israeli startup company. Former national electoral court prosecutor Eugenio Jose Guilherme de Aragao will replace Wellington Cesar Lima, whose appointment on February 29 was blocked by a Supreme Court injunction.
“Of course I want to see Rousseff booted out”, said Maria de Lima Pimenta, a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher. There are no records of confrontation, which was commemorated by the government – it classified the protests as “strong”.
Advertisement
If Rousseff lost an impeachment vote, Vice President Michel Temer, the PMDB leader, would succeed her.
