Where is Brazil heading?

The Brazilian Congress has voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, accused of window-dressing state accounts. The country is going through its worst recession in decades and tens of thousands are demonstrating on the streets. Will the protests against Rousseff bring about real change in the country?

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NRC Handelsblad (NL) /

Hopefully the start of a purge

NRC Handelsblad hopes there will now be a big clean-up in Brazil:

“This huge corruption scandal centred on state-run oil company Petrobas has crippled the country's politics. … The government has not been able to do anything to get the country out of its worst recession in a century. Millions have lost their jobs, and the middle class - which emerged in a decade of economic optimism - is disillusioned. This has poisoned society, leading to months of street protests with the citizens pitched against each other. This situation couldn't go on. … Hopefully this episode marks the start of a purge in Brazil. Whoever succeeds Rousseff must hold new elections as soon as possible. … Because there is one thing the Brazilians quite rightly agree on: the system needs to be swept clean once more.”

Jornal de Notícias (PT) /

A deeply divided country

Jornal de Notícias wonders how the tense atmosphere in Brazil can be dispelled:

“Something has gone very wrong in South America's largest country. … The supporters of President Dilma Rousseff and ex-head of state Lula see themselves as victims of a veritable coup. The other camp admits that the ongoing impeachment proceedings won't improve the economic situation in the country but it wants to punish Dilma Rousseff and her Workers' Party, even though it raised millions of Brazilians out of poverty. Brazil is a country deeply divided by hatred - and we have yet to see how the people on the streets will channel their anger. That's the big question and at the same time the challenge the Brazilian people face. Because the coup has already taken place.”

More opinions

Die Presse (AT) / 19 April 2016
  Rousseff's opponents simply out to protect themselves (in German)