RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets for a second day on Sunday to call for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under attack by his government in the management of COVID-19, which has plagued the country and has claimed more 216,000 lives.
Honking cars marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and a dozen or more from other cities while other protesters marched on foot, some shouting: “Get out, Bolsonaro!”
Sunday’s protests were called by conservative groups that once supported the president, while Saturday’s came from the left.
“When Bolsonaro arrived, we voted for him for his proposals that we found interesting, but the situation now with the pandemic is terrible,” said Meg Fernandes, a 66-year-old engineer who participated in a protest in Rio on Sunday.
She said she was especially alarmed by the situation in the city of Manaus, in the north, where there is a waiting list for hospital intensive care beds and a lack of medical oxygen.
“I had already been disappointed last year, but now with the situation in Manaus, I think (this government) has to stop,” she said. “Bye, Bolsonaro.”
Thomaz Favaro, a political analyst at consultancy Control Risks, said Bolsonaro faces little risk of impeachment, although that may change if his allies lose the vote on the lower house leadership on February 2.
“Bolsonaro’s base in Congress is unstable, but it is robust,” he said, although it may be hampered by the president’s declining popularity.
But he said that impeachment would be “a nuclear option that changes the country’s political trajectory”.
Bolsonaro – who is halfway through his four-year term – has faced renewed criticism in recent weeks, both for the crisis in Manaus and for the delays in launching Brazil’s immunization campaign against COVID-19. The president has long resisted blocking measures against the new coronavirus, arguing that the economic damage would be worse than the disease.
The Attorney General of Brazil, Augusto Aras, asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to open an investigation against the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, because of the crisis in Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas. Aras cited a document that said the ministry knew of a possible oxygen shortage on January 8, but did not start shipping extra supplies until January 12.
A Datafolha poll released recently, from January 20 to 21, showed that support for Bolsonaro fell from 31% in December to 37%, the biggest drop in a month since the beginning of his government. The number that classifies its performance as poor has risen from 32% to 40%. The margin of error was two percentage points.
“We ask for Bolsonaro’s impeachment because it is not just a crime he committed. The way he treated the pandemic – He spent money on ineffective drugs instead of investing in vaccine and oxygen, ”said Tiago Sussekind, a 21-year-old law student who joined Saturday’s protest in Rio.
The weekend’s protests come as calls for Bolsonaro’s increased impeachment, although most analysts consider this unlikely.
Carlos Ayres Britto, ex-president of the Court, ex-presidential candidate Ciro Gomes and even singer Chico Buarque asked the president to face impeachment for his response to the pandemic. An important newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo, also published an editorial calling for impeachment on Friday.
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AP’s videojournalist Diarlei Rodrigues contributed to this report.