Brazil's Dilma Rousseff's Popularity Ratings Down To 20-Year Low

[MADem]

93. I guess they've got paid shills over at GUARDIAN UK, too, then? They're saying they didn't turn out.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/15/brazil-protesters-rouseff-impeachment-petrobas

Many said they were marching because of the Petrobras scandal, which has seen 57 politicians, including former president Fernando Collor de Mello, investigated for kick-backs worth at least $3bn (£2.03bn). Rousseff is not under investigation but as a former chair of Petrobras during the period when much of the corruption took place, she has struggled to avoid being tainted by a scandal that has implicated allies and opponents alike.

Although all the major parties have been dragged into the mire, most of those implicated are from the ruling coalition and the demonstrators were collecting signatures calling for the impeachment of Rousseff.

“It’s unbelievable. They aren’t politicians. They are criminals,” said India Longras, who beat a frying pan painted with “Fora Dilma”. “I was born in the military dictatorship. It was a lot better than now. If I had to choose between then and now, I’d choose dictatorship. Education was better, crime was low and the poor lived with dignity.”

Calls for a military coup were less evident at the bigger rallies in São Paulo and Brasilia. Sunday’s protests were the biggest in Brazil since 2013, but the profile and politics of the participants were very different and they passed more peacefully. The Confederations Cup demonstrations two years ago had their origins in a campaign to secure free public transport and spread rapidly particularly among the young, via social networks after police violence inflamed public opinion. The latest wave of protests, however, is from an older, whiter, more affluent demographic, following widespread advance coverage by the mainstream media.

Anticipating this, the Workers Party organised a rally last Friday in support of the government and state control of Petrobras, but there were less than a thousand people at their main demonstration in central Rio.

This is the left-liberal paper, mind you:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/17/brazil-crisis-petrobas-scandal-dilma-rousseff-protests

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.

Workers’ Party struggles
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.....