Brazilians call for president to resign after graft charges

SAO PAULO—Brazilians around the country staged demonstrations Sunday calling for their president to step down after the supreme court opened an investigation into allegations he endorsed the payment of hush money to a jailed former lawmaker.

The accusations against President Michel Temer have plunged Latin America’s largest nation into crisis yet again, sending its currency and stocks plummeting and stalling a series of reforms designed to pull the economy out of a protracted recession. It’s been just a year since Temer took over as president following the impeachment and removal of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff.

Now, the calls are growing for Temer himself to be impeached or resign. The latest to join that chorus was Brazil’s bar association, which voted late Saturday to submit a request for Temer’s impeachment to Congress.

On Sunday, several hundred people huddled under umbrellas and building porticos to avoid the rain in Sao Paulo as they called for Temer to leave office. Many said they have opposed Temer since he took over from Rousseff because they regard her impeachment as politically motivated and illegitimate. On Sunday, they were protesting Temer’s proposals to loosen labor laws and change the pension system as much as they were responding to the recent allegations.

“We’re here to get Temer out of government because he is a coup-leader, because he is against teachers” and other workers, said Tatiana Camargos, a 41-year-old biology teacher.