Protesters jeered Brazil’s new President Michel Temer on
Wednesday as he participated in the county’s Independence Day parade in
Brasilia and the opening ceremonies of the Paralympics in Rio de
Janeiro, his first official events since taking office on August 31.
Protesters at the events and in nearly a dozen other state capitals across Brazil were shouting “Temer Out” and “Usurper”.
Police in Brasilia estimated the number of protesters gathered in the
nation’s capital at about 600, relatively small compared with protests
that brought millions to the streets on occasion over the last two years
of impeached President Dilma Rousseff’s administration.
Despite the early demonstrations, markets have given Temer and
his economic team the benefit of the doubt, for now. Brazil’s real and
main stock index have gained nearly 3 percent since Rousseff’s ouster,
even as a new corruption scandal hit the government last week.
His team is expected to oversee a recovery of Brazil’s economy,
bogged down in its worst recession in 80 years, but economists do not
predict a robust turnaround over the next 12 months.
Investors also expect Temer to push
through unpopular and difficult reforms of the country’s bloated pension
system, burdensome tax code and inflexible labor laws.