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Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets this Sunday, for the second day in a row, to demand the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing him of being weak in the face of the pandemic of Covid-19 that has caused the death of more than 216,000 people in the country.
Vehicles honking their horns paraded through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least a dozen other cities, while other protesters marched on foot shouting “Go away, Bolsonaro!”
The protests of this day were called by conservative groups that once supported the president, while those on Saturday were from the left.
“When Bolsonaro arrived, we voted for him because we found his proposals interesting, but with the pandemic situation it is terrible,” said Meg Fernandes, a 66-year-old engineer who joined the protest in Rio on Sunday.
She added that she was particularly shocked by the situation in the Northern city of Manaus, where there is a waiting list for intensive care beds and a shortage of medical oxygen.
“I had already felt frustrated last year, but now with the situation in Manaus, I think this government has to stop,” he said. “Goodbye, Bolsonaro.”
Thomas Favaro, a political analyst at the consulting firm Control Risks, said Bolsonaro runs little risk of impeachment, though that could change if his allies lose a February 2 election for the lower house leadership.
“Bolsonaro’s base in Congress is shaky, but it is solid,” he said, although it could be affected by the president’s declining popularity.
However, he added that a political trial would be “a nuclear option that would change the country’s political trajectory”.
Bolsonaro, who is in the middle of his four-year term, has faced new criticism in recent weeks for the crisis in Manaus and the delay in launching the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in Brazil. Long ago the president refuses quarantine measures, arguing that the economic damage would be worse than the disease.
