Brazilians protest austerity plans of interim president

Scores of Brazilians on Sunday marched through the streets of Sao Paolo to protest against austerity plans interim president, Michel Temer intends to introduce.

Temer took over from the country’s embattled president Dilma Rousseff who faces trial for breaking budget rules. He has pledged a series of business friendly reforms to drag Brazil out of its worst recession in decades.

Critics however say the government’s plans for austerity will affect social programmes that millions of Brazilians rely on.

The protest, organised by several social movements, was thus to compel the government to halt its plans.

A sign showing Brazil's acting President Temer during a protest of support for suspended President Rousseff pic.twitter.com/IOCK1WdCov

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President of the Homeless Workers’ Movement, Guilherme Boulos told reporters that Temer is “a president nobody elected and who wants to put forward an agenda that nobody voted for.”

He said the people will stop Temer’s “agenda of attacking social rights, (this agenda) of cutting social programmes that benefit the poor Brazilian people” since “nobody defined this, nobody approved of this at the voting booth”.

Secretary General of the Intersindical labour group, Edson Carneiro vowed to “take down this government and block an agenda that is absolutely nefarious for the Brazilian people”.

“They want to end public education, public health, and in all truth they want to tear away the social rights guaranteed by the constitution,” Carneiro argued.

Sunday’s march started at a Sao Paolo park. The protesters then headed towards Temer’s home but security forces successfully blocked roads leading to Temer’s residence and the crowd could not reach his home.

Local outlets reported the president left his home for the capital Brasilia earlier than expected on Sunday before the estimated 3,000 protesters arrived near his private residence.

Reuters