Pro-Bolsonaro protesters demand reforms in Brazil

THOUSANDS of supporters of farright President Jair Bolsonaro took to the streets across Brazil on Sunday in a protest seen as a gauge of the embattled leader’s popularity only five months into his term.

Waving Brazilian flags and chanting Bolsonaro’s nickname “Mito” or “Myth”, protesters wearingT-shirts emblazoned with “My party is Brazil” demanded lawmakers speed up approval of the government’s signature pension reform, which has stalled in Congress.

His supporters blamed “satanic manoeuvres” by the head of the lower house, Rodrigo Maia, for stalling the reform.

Bolsonaro, who was in Rio for a family wedding and had previously announced that he would not to take part in the demonstrations, shared pictures and videos of the protests on Twitter.

“Most of the people came out on the streets with legitimate, democratic concerns,” he tweeted.

Former paratrooper Geralmir dos Santos gathered with the thousands of nois y protesters a long R io de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.

“Politicians have to understand that Brazil does not belong to them,” said the 50-year-old.

At a demonstration in Brazil’s biggest city of Sao Paulo, Andre Santos said: “There’s no point wasting more time, they have to approve it.”

The protests, orga nised by Bolsonaro’s most hard-line supporters, are aimed at shoring up the ultraconser vat ive gover nment as it faces growing opposition.

Tens of thousands of students and teachers took to the streets on May 15 to protest aga i nst t he gover nment’s plans to freeze 30 per cent of discret iona r y spending for public universities in the second half of the year.

Rising unemployment, slowing economic growth and deepening discord within his administration has further eroded Bolsonaro’s popularity since taking power in January.

His controversial order earlier this month permitting millions of Brazilians to carr y loaded weapons in public has f uelled anger, sparked a lega l cha l lenge a nd added to his woes in Congress, where his relations with key leaders such as Maia had a lready deteriorated.

Bolsonaro’s ambitious overhaul of Brazil’s pension system – which he has warned will bankrupt the country if his proposal is not approved – is seen as key to getting a pipeline of economic policies through Congress.

But the changes to Brazil’s retirement age and benefits are facing resistance in the lower house of Congress, where Bolsonaro’s ultraconservative Social Liberal Party has only around 10 per cent of the seats.

Economy minister Paulo Guedes, who is spearheading the government’s reform agenda, threatened on Friday to resign if the pension bill was not passed or was watered down.

“We will not have money to pay officials, it will be chaos in the public sector,” Guedes told Veja magazine. “Reform is urgent.”

The government’s proposal is designed to yield savings of around one trillion reais (roughly $250 billion) over a decade, but analysts expect the actual amount will be more like 500700 billion reais by the time the bill is approved later this year.

The pension bill is one of several economic reforms seen as crucial to helping Bra zi l reduce its massive public debt burden, which the International Monetary Fund said on Friday was 88 per cent of GDP – one of the largest among its peers.

Official data this week is expected to show that Latin America’s biggest economy, which is still struggling to recover from the devastating 20152016 recession, contracted in the first quarter.

Some of the protesters in Rio called for “military intervention” as in 1964 when a military coup ushered in decades of army rule in Brazil.

Others expressed more sober demands, such as “Let’s help our president rebuild our Brazil”.

“I am here for the pension reform, which will be good for the poor,” said Janelsa Salomao, 59, in Rio.

“Those who do not want it a re corrupt.”