IT IS unlikely that Brazilians will listen to the audacious call made by Michel Platini a great player in his time and now the politicking president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) on April 26: “Brazil, make an effort for a month, calm down!”
The FIFA World Cup opens in Sao Paulo on Thursday and comes to a close on July 13 in Rio de Janeiro and there is concern that the current protests could escalate during the global sports event.
The other group, organised in “World Cup people’s committees”, protest the sporting event but do not take part in violent demonstrations.
Nevertheless, the current protests do not seem to be taking on the magnitude of the June 2013 demonstrations. The radical groups have helped fragment the movements, which have no single unified leadership.
The result: according to a recent survey, two-thirds of Brazilians are opposed to protests being held during the World Cup. And they especially disapprove of violent protests.
What will the political cost of all this be for the Rousseff administration?
Last year’s protests dealt a major blow to the president, who, in the first three weeks after they broke out, saw her popularity drop more than 25%.
Later, she said she was “listening to the voices from the streets” and proposed political reforms in Congress. That vigorous response enabled her to recover some of her lost popularity.
This time, the challenge will be at the polls, because the presidential elections are set for October 5.
For these elections, which will be decisive not only for Brazil but for all of Latin America, what happens this month during the World Cup could be critical.
Ignacio Ramonet is director of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish (copyright IPS)
Brazil, football, protests
The FIFA World Cup opens in Sao Paulo on Thursday and comes to a close on July 13 in Rio de Janeiro and there is concern that the current protests could escalate during the global sports event.
The other group, organised in “World Cup people’s committees”, protest the sporting event but do not take part in violent demonstrations.
Nevertheless, the current protests do not seem to be taking on the magnitude of the June 2013 demonstrations. The radical groups have helped fragment the movements, which have no single unified leadership.
The result: according to a recent survey, two-thirds of Brazilians are opposed to protests being held during the World Cup. And they especially disapprove of violent protests.
What will the political cost of all this be for the Rousseff administration?
Last year’s protests dealt a major blow to the president, who, in the first three weeks after they broke out, saw her popularity drop more than 25%.
Later, she said she was “listening to the voices from the streets” and proposed political reforms in Congress. That vigorous response enabled her to recover some of her lost popularity.
This time, the challenge will be at the polls, because the presidential elections are set for October 5.
For these elections, which will be decisive not only for Brazil but for all of Latin America, what happens this month during the World Cup could be critical.
Ignacio Ramonet is director of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish (copyright IPS)
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