Briefings & Intelligence

20-03-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

Rousseff responds to Brazil protests with anti-corruption measures

Surveys both before and after Sunday’s major anti-government protests in Brazil showed that the principal motivation for those who took to the streets in São Paulo and elsewhere was corruption. According to Datafolha, 47% of those present cited corruption as the reason for their presence; only 27% demanded President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. As such, the government has responded with a package of anti-corruption measures, but only one element can be fulfilled without congressional approval. Securing legislative support for more thorough reform is likely to prove a challenge, given the poisonous atmosphere generated by the investigation into wrongdoing at Petrobras, the state-owned oil company. In the meantime, the activists who organised the 15 March demonstrations have already planned another for 12 April.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Brazil. The most impressive demonstration took place in São Paulo, where around 200,000 marched down Avenida Paulista. Worryingly, from the perspective of the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the participants there were somewhat more heterogeneous in terms of income, race and age than elsewhere in Brazil, where protesters were fewer, whiter and wealthier. São Paulo is an opposition stronghold, however, and a Datafolha survey showed afterwards that 82% of those present had supported Aécio Neves, the opposition presidential candidate in October’s election.

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