Rousseff Impeachement: Brazilians Completely Fed Up With Government System?

Movements in Brazil have called for the impeachment of the nation's president, Dilma Rousseff, but a recent report said that Brazilians don't care that much when it comes to ousting their leader out of office.

According to a report from The Huffington Post, plenty of Brazilians still trusted the Workers' Party (PT) and the country's former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There was a significant improvement in Brazil's economy and social conditions when Lula was the president. However, the recent Petrobras scandal could take out the PT's supporters and their trust.

Early last year, a scandal broke out about corruption practices in Brazil's biggest oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro, The Guardian reported. An inquiry revealed that at least $3bn has been stolen from the state-run firm, which was once the prized possession of the Brazilian economy. The PT's treasurer, João Vaccari, was involved in the scandal, as well as some of Rousseff's closest aides.

PT, the party that strongly promoted anti-corruption dialogue, is now "caught carrying out one of the world's largest corruption schemes," The Huffington Post wrote. Despite of this, the party still has a number of supporters, since corrupt politicians from past and present governments are no longer fresh news to the Brazilian population.

The news outlet added, "The government abandoned the avant-garde anti-corruption rhetoric and adopted a well-known conservative politician's old motto: 'He steals, but he gets things done.'"

But Rousseff's reelection altered the situation. The Huffington Post reported that corruption scandals continue to surface, but the economic and social workers are nowhere to be seen. Brazil is also having issues regarding its dollar exchange rate, the inflation rate, and the current president's popularity, which is the lowest approval rating for a Brazilian president. This year, the citizens finally responded and have demonstrated three of the nation's largest protests.

Some of the concerns the people now have are the billion-dollar social security deficit, retirement plans, education, and the money cultivated by businessmen and employees, the news outlet listed.

The worsening public finances of Brazil is deemed as the country's worst recession since the 1930s, with the economy expected to contract 3 per cent this year and 1 per cent in 2016, Financial Times wrote. This deterioration is partly because of a slowdown in China that has diminished the demand for Brazil's commodities exports and reduced tax revenues. Rousseff countered this by implementing a chain of incentive measures that include price controls and tax breaks for industry.