Brazilians call for more sophisticated public services and accountable politicians

lee6100 · Jun 19, 2013

[FONT=&amp]Brazilians call for more sophisticated public services and accountable politicians as they become disenchanted with government[/FONT]

By Joe Leahy in Rio de Janeiro

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©AP

Brazil’s government vowed that it would not permit protesters to interrupt the country’s staging of events for the football World Cup after the country witnessed its biggest street demonstrations for 20 years on Monday night.
Hundreds of thousands of people staged largely peaceful demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília, as well as the capitals of other states including Belém in the Amazon, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre in the south. More protests were expected on Tuesday night.
“Anyone who thinks they can impede these events will meet with the full determination of the government to make sure this does not happen,” sports minister Aldo Rebelo told the FT. “We won’t tolerate any effort to stop the realisation of these events. Protests will be tolerated but within limits.”
The spontaneity and intensity of the protests have caught politicians of all hues by surprise. They represent the most serious political challenge for President Dilma Rousseff in her two and a half years in office.

What started as small student demonstrations in São Paulo a few weeks ago against an increase in bus and metro fares has mushroomed into a national expression of discontent with the country’s political classes.
The demonstrations come as Brazil this month is staging the Confederations Cup, the dress rehearsal event for its planned hosting of the World Cup next year.
“I think Brazil has to wake up, our complaints are much more than [bus] tickets, it’s the stagnant economy, it’s corruption, it’s lack of public security, a lack of civic rights,” said Maria Eduarda Carvalho, a social scientist marching in São Paulo with her husband and daughters

On Monday night, the police presence was more restrained as the city and state governments sought to avoid a repeat of protests last Thursday and at the weekend, when riot police clashed with protesters at the opening games of the Confederations Cup in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro under the glare of international media.
Alleged police brutality caught on camera helped consolidate public support for the protests.

Demonstrators in Brasília managed to invade the roof of the congress building designed by the country’s great modern architect Oscar Niemeyer on Monday, before eventually agreeing to leave.
In Rio de Janeiro, a small breakaway group attacked the state legislative building, injuring police and briefly invading the structure before being driven off.
The building and surrounding square in the historic area of Rio were covered in graffiti afterwards. “Cabral Dictator” said one, naming the city’s state governor, Sergio Cabral. “This is how the cup starts,” said another. Others used stronger language against the World Cup.
The groundswell of protests, which were organised through social media, come amid similar events in other Latin American countries and further abroad, as the rise of a larger middle class leads to greater demand for more sophisticated public services and accountable politicians.
Brazilians have become deeply disenchanted with the quality of their leaders following an endless series of corruption scandals affecting all levels of government but culminating in the Mensalao, or big monthly payment scam, in which former members of the ruling Workers Party were last year convicted for vote-buying in congress.
The challenge for politicians is that the protest movement is against all parties. Ms Rousseff, still one of the world’s most popular presidents, is not the focus and she sought to remain aloof from the protesters’ complaints on Monday. “Brazil woke up stronger today,” she said, praising the demonstrations as a show of democracy.
<q>The risk for Rousseff and for the political class in general is that it will be tough to govern over the next couple of years</q> - Joao Augusto de Castro Neves, analyst, Eurasia Group

But she faces elections next year and her popularity is beginning to fall as the economy slows, unemployment – albeit from near record-low levels – begins to creep up and rising interest rates squeeze heavily indebted consumers.
“The risk for Rousseff and for the political class in general is that it will be tough to govern over the next couple of years,” said Joao Augusto de Castro Neves, analyst with Eurasia Group. “You have a more demanding middle class and the government is having to deliver more to this middle class, but with less.”
Ms Rousseff is already under heavy pressure from markets to rein in the government’s budget deficit to help control persistent inflation, which is hovering near the upper end of the central bank’s target range of 6.5 per cent.
“‘The new middle class’, the bed rock of support for the current government, looks increasingly restless and worried about maintaining recent economic gains,” said Tony Volpon, an economist at Nomura. “If, as many believe, unemployment rates begin to rise and real consumption levels fall due to sticky inflation, support from this key constituency could weaken.”

Brazilians call for more sophisticated public services and accountable politicians

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