Temer’s personal involvement in alleged cases of corruption seemed to have had little or no impact on the workers’ decision.

Without support from the transport unions in São Paulo, the country’s most populous and industrialized state, and Rio de Janeiro, the strike failed to achieve its goals.

Neither the political earthquake unleashed since last May, nor the controversial economic reforms undertaken by the Executive managed to bring the country to a complete stop.

The previous general strike since Temer took office was on April 28.

However, the strike did hit some targets in Brasília, where the protest was felt with greater intensity, as there were no bus or underground services available.

In the morning, groups of strikers blocked access to some of the country’s major cities with barricades that they set ablaze.

Later, there were mobilizations in the country’s 27 states to protest, in a peaceful way, against the liberal-led reform package of reforms which includes tough fiscal adjustments and changes to labor laws particularly regarding wage bargaining, and pensions.

In São Paulo, protesters burned a giant duck on Avenida Paulista in the financial heart of the city. The yellow duck has become the symbol of the highly-influential Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp).

The reform package, praised by employers and strongly criticized by unions, has been put on stand-by in Congress since the scandal that threatens Temer’s continuity in power.

The president, who has reiterated that he will exercise his mandate to its last day on January 1, 2019, is also under investigation for the crimes of obstruction of justice and illicit association, which could lead to new lawsuits against him.

The suspicions about Temer are based on the revelations to the Justice of several executives of the group JBS, who have pointed fingers at him saying he has accepted bribes since 2010 and they submitted audio recordings which seem to back those allegations.

Since the outbreak of the scandal, uncovered last May 17, the president has lost the support of several minority parties with parliamentary representation and even the opposition and some lawmakers of his own party have asked for his immediate resignation and hampered the process of the aforementioned reforms .

The labor reform is a step closer to entering into force and only needs to be approved by the Senate before being sanctioned by the president, while that of the pension system is paralyzed in the House of Deputies, which must also decide on whether to move forward with Temer’s impeachment, for which two-thirds of the are required.

Should the charges be pushed forward, the matter would be sent to the Supreme Court and if the judiciary too finds it appropriate to proceed, Temer would be suspended from office for 180 days.

Mercopress

“New facts keep coming up every day and we’ll monitor,” the senator said at the end of a six-hour meeting of the party’s national executive committee.

According to Jereissati, a majority within his party chose not to break ranks with the governing coalition at this time because it wanted to ensure support for the government’s austerity reforms in Congress, including an overhaul of the pension system.

The PSDB is the largest single party in the governing coalition apart from the ruling PMDB itself.

Talking about the outcome of a recent Electoral Court trial on the finance of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer’s 2014 re-election campaign, Jereissati said he thought the PSDB should appeal the acquittal. (The court dispute was filed by the PSDB, which is the party of the runner-up in the 2014 election.)

However, he said, the PSDB lawyers would rather wait until the acquittal ruling is officially published, then leave the matter for the party committee to decide. “We’ll stick with Temer’s coalition, but we’re not leaving our views aside. And I’m convinced there was corruption in the 2014 election.”

Jereissati admitted his stance might seem incongruous, but said he preferred to follow his convictions.

“There is certainly some incongruity to this, but we’ve been bound by history. This is not my government, nor the government of my dreams. I didn’t vote for either him [Temer] or her [Rousseff]. We’re in this together for the sake of stability. I would feel more comfortable with someone from the PSDB [in the presidency].”

About the possibility of the Prosecutor-General’s Office indicting Temer on the charges against him, Jereissati said the PSDB preferred to leave the party members in the Chamber of Deputies free to use their own judgment (a formal investigation of an incumbent president is subject to the approval of the lower house of Congress).

“There’s no closing ranks on that. There are mixed views within the party, so it’s up to each one’s own personal judgment rather than the party’s decision. If something really big comes up, we may change our minds and call a new meeting to discuss it again,” he said.

The PSDB party has five of its members in Michel Temer’s cabinet. It is the fourth-largest bench in the lower house (46 deputies), and the third-largest in Senate (11 senators) next to the ruling PMDB and the PT.

The national president of the PSDB, Senator Aécio Neves, was suspended by Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin, the judge overseeing the Car Wash probe in the Supreme Court, following allegations that he had received kickbacks.

Supreme Court

Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin decided to give the Federal Police an additional five days to finish an investigation on Brazil President Michel Temer.

The police said it would need more time to complete its investigation, which was prompted by President Temer being implicated by plea bargain testimonies obtained from executives of JBS meatpacking giant in the Car Wash corruption scandal.

Last Friday (June 9), Temer’s lawyer Antonio Mariz de Oliveira told Justice Fachin the president had declined to answer the questions submitted by Federal Police in writing.

Moreover, the defense asked the court to dismiss the case and criticized the questionnaire submitted by police commissioners.

In his ruling on Monday (12), Fachin also gave the Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGR) five days to state its position regarding the defense’s request to drop the case.

New Bill

Due to a holiday next Thursday (June 15), the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies to deliberate on bills, resolutions, and amendments to the Constitution will begin Monday (June 12) and run until Wednesday (14) (typically they are held on Thursdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays).

The first item to be discussed on the floor is a bill to deregulate the air travel industry to increase the share of allowed foreign interest in Brazilian airlines from the current 20%.

Because of its priority status, that bill has to be dealt with before any other business pending before the house.

Deputies disagree as to the maximum interest foreign investors can have in an airline in Brazil, with some of them pressing for full foreign stakes to be permitted, and others saying it should be limited to 49%.

The government has said it hopes the deregulation will “increase competition and deconcentrate Brazil’s air travel industry.”

Also covered by the bill are an increase in the number of Brazilian cities and routes served by regular air transport, cheaper air fares, and improved connections between domestic air routes and international flights.

ABr

Buses and subway services were disrupted in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s most populous cities. And public transport workers in the cities of Recife, Curitiba and Belo Horizonte went on strike to protest harsh austerity measures in conjunction with the protests.

“This is the first unified mobilization this year and opens the calendar of an intense agenda that we will have in 2017 to denounce the setbacks that penalize workers, such as reforms to the retirement system and labor legislation,” said the organizers in a statement.

Hundreds of protesters also occupied the premises of the Finance Ministry in the capital Brasília, as more than 1,500 people from peasant and homeless groups held protests outside the building.

“While the government justifies the reforms due to the public deficit, it grants tax exemptions to companies, is not involved in the effective fight against tax evasion and forgives the debts of hundreds of companies that owe three times the value of the deficit of the retirement system,” said the organizers.

The protests began in the early morning and lasted until night. Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated on a rally in on Paulista Avenue.

At night, in Rio, the military police used tear gas against demonstrators and customers who were in Cinelândia, a neighborhood in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Many people felt ill and needed to be helped, leaving the area weeping and with red eyes.

The police had responded to an attack 10 minutes earlier, by a group of protesters, who had thrown rocks against the military.

Workers’ unions, the Landless Worker Movement known as the MST, as well as the Popular Brazil Front, and the Fearless People Front organized the march, with support from other trade unions.

“The strike will extend to all the states of the country and we hope to have the adhesion of more than 1 million members,” said the head of the National Confederation of Education Workers, Heleno Araújo.

According to Araújo, the 48 affiliated entities of the union have joined the general strike, which was initially scheduled to last 10 days but could be extended further.

The teachers’ union is also holding regional assemblies to decide whether universities and colleges, both public and private, will be closed to protest an education reform promoted by Temer.

Temer’s controversial pension reform plan — introduced to Congress last December — would reduce benefits, raise social security contributions by civil servants and set a minimum age of retirement at 65 years in a country where people work on average until the age of 54 years before retiring.

The plan also eliminates special pensions for the education and agriculture sector, removes retirement benefits based on the minimum wage, which according to the head of the Landless Worker Movement, João Pedro Stédile, almost tripled during the governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff.

The workers are also demanding Temer’s resignation, since he was appointed after Congress ousted Dilma Rousseff, and demand new general elections.

‘Out with Temer’

Just last month, thousands of Brazilians have seized the country’s Carnaval festivities as an opportunity to protest against President Michel Temer and in defense of the deposed President Dilma Rousseff as part of massive parties and parades in several cities.

During the celebration in the city Salvador, the famous BaianaSystem band shouted with thousands of people “Fora, Temer,” meaning “Out with Temer,” and “Coup-perpetrators shall not pass!”

The lead singer of the band, Russo Passapusso, brought the political debate to one of the world’s most famous parties. He shouted along with thousands of Brazilians, “Sexist, fascist, they shall not pass!”

Musician Caetano Veloso, known for his work in the “Tropicalismo” musical movement and as a political activist, also showed his discontent with the current government, shouting “Fora Temer” to a cheering crowd during his unexpected performance in Salvador.

Demonstrators also called for the country’s constitutional president, Dilma Rousseff, to be reinstated in power with signs saying “Volta, Dilma,” meaning “Dilma, Return.”

Rousseff, who won re-election for a second term in 2014 with more than 54 million votes, was removed from office last August in an impeachment process condemned by many nationally and internationally as a parliamentary coup, but she was not stripped of her political rights, allowing her to run for office again in the future.

Also in Salvador, hundreds gathered to show support for former President Lula, shouting “Olê, olê, olê, olá, Lula, Lula!” Polls indicate that Lula, Rousseff’s predecessor, is Brazil’s favored candidate for the 2018 presidential election.

Michel Temer, on the other hand, who was Rousseff’s running mate for the 2014 presidential election and played a role in orchestrating the parliamentary coup that removed her from office, is barred from running for office for the next two presidential terms for violating electoral finance rules — a fact that did not stop him from being installed as president.

Temer has introduced a series of sweeping privatization proposals and cuts to education, health and other social sectors since he was sworn in last August. The president, who has very low approval ratings in Brazil, is set to complete Rousseff’s presidential term until the next scheduled election in late 2018.

teleSUR

The industrial sector, composed of three groups – manufacturing, construction, and mining -, which registered 6% growth this year, is expected to grow at a slower pace in 2005, an average of 4.5%.

This forecast was made by the president of the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Federal Deputy Armando Monteiro Neto, at the launching of the document “Brazilian Economy: Performance and Prospects.”

He informed that the slight retraction can be explained by the less favorable situation abroad, as a result of the disequilibrium in the American economy, beset by fiscal and foreign debts, and the adjustment in the pace of external expansion, affected by the monetary policy based on controlling inflation.

Monteiro attributed the good performance of the industrial sector this year to the recovery of domestic consumer demand, due to the control of inflation, salary recovery, and the revival of the job market.

The president of the CNI acknowledged that another important factor in the recovery of industrial sales was the 30% export growth registered this year.

He attributes this result to the flexible exchange policy in recent years, guaranteeing a competitive exchange rate.

Monteiro said that a reduction in exports is foreseeable, but he added that, even so, the country will continue to grow.

“The CNI’s forecasts bet on a 3.5% growth rate, but, in order to continue moving in the direction of economic development, Brazil needs to conclude the tax reform, improve credit conditions, alter the labor laws, and expand investments in the area of infrastructure,” he contended.

Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil