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Brazil police storm Congress over proposal to raise retirement age
Pension changes spark violence in Brasilia as police union members clash with congressional security forces
Reuters
Tuesday 18 April 2017 22.15 EDT
Congressional police in riot gear used tear gas to drive back hundreds of members of federal police unions who tried to invade the Brazilian Congress on Tuesday to protest against a pension reform bill that would reduce their benefits.
The demonstrators broke glass doors before being pushed back in a violent clash that underscored the unpopularity of the pension reform President Michel Temer’s government is proposing to balance Brazil’s overdrawn public accounts.
The lower Chamber of Deputies, where debate on the bill will begin at committee level on Wednesday, said in a statement that 500 demonstrators, most of them off-duty police officers, tried to invade the building but were repelled with no injuries reported.
The controversial reform sets a minimum retirement age of 65 in a country where public sector employees work on average to 54 before retiring in a generous social security system that is the main cause of Brazil’s unsustainable budget deficit.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/19/brazil-police-storm-congress-over-proposal-to-raise-retirement-age
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141756020
