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Brazil in crisis mode as ruling party sees public trust rapidly dissolving
The bad news just keeps coming for Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. On Monday, the treasurer of the ruling Workers’ Party was formerly charged with corruption. The day before, enormous anti-government demonstrations filled the streets of more than 160 cities. The economy is faltering, inflation is rising and poverty reduction is at risk of stalling.
Her cabinet are in crisis mode, but they are hamstrung by a fractious legislature and a debilitating scandal at the state-run oil firm Petrobras, which has led to investigations of 34 sitting politicians, including the speakers of both houses of Congress. Just five months into her second term, this is posing difficult questions not just for the president, but for her party — and for Brazil’s 30-year-old democracy.
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Twenty-six others were charged. More will follow, many of them from the ruling coalition. Rousseff, who was chairwoman of the Petrobras board when much of the wrongdoing took place, is also under pressure. Although she is not under investigation and has denied knowledge of the corruption, members of the public are not convinced.
The Petrobras scandal was high among a long list of grievances that brought people to the streets on Sunday. Estimates of the number of protesters range from hundreds of thousands to more than 1.5 million — huge by any standard. Countless others also came to their balconies and windows to clang their pots and pans in disapproval at government policies. The domestic media reported demonstrations in more than 160 cities.
It was a shock for the Workers’ Party, which rose to power through mass mobilisations, but now appears to have lost the streets. Pro-government rallies called by trade unions two days earlier attracted only a tiny fraction of this interest. In São Paulo, the turnout was around 10,000. In central Rio, it was probably less than 1,000.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/17/brazil-crisis-petrobas-scandal-dilma-rousseff-protests
