Tens of thousands poured into the streets of Sao Paulo in a massive demonstration against Brazil’s newly installed president, Michel Temer, on Sunday (September 4).
More than a half dozen demonstrations against Temer have been held in Brazil’s largest city leading up to and since Brazil’s Senate decision to oust former President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday (August 31), following a months-long impeachment trial.
Temer, the former vice president, was officially sworn in as president shortly after senators voted 61-20 to convict the country’s first female president for illegally using money from state banks to bankroll public spending, marking the end of 13 years of leftist Workers’ Party rule.
Temer had been leading the country since Rousseff’s suspension in May and will now head the country for the remainder of Rousseff’s term through December 2018.
Demonstrators, many carrying anti-Temer banners and signs, chanted “Out with Temer” as they made their way down Sao Paulo’s central Avenida Paulista.
Eduardo Suplicy, a former senator and current candidate for city council, has called on Temer to hold a vote to allow voters to decide if he should serve out the rest of Rousseff’s term or not.
“To show the people’s real feelings and so President Temer knows what the Brazilian people are thinking about the coup that was carried out against President Dilma (Rousseff) who did not commit an impeachable offence, much less a crime. She is a serious person who always worked for the good of the Brazilian people,” Suplicy said at the rally.
Demonstrators have said Temer and his allies illegally removed Rousseff from power and likened her overthrow to a coup d’état.
Many expect Temer to try to quickly push through fiscal reforms to close a yawning budget gap that cost Brazil its investment grade credit rating in 2015.
One demonstrator, Gustavo Amigo, said such a move would be against the wishes of the Brazilian people.
“Because the Temer government is going to look to make anti-democratic reforms that go against the people. And we’re here to show that the people still have power and that despite the coup, we are here in the street to bring down the (current) government and call for a new election,” Amigo said.
Temer is currently in China for the G20 summit hosted in the Asian country.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
