Brazil rallies may become violent, drastic: Expert

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ramin Vahidzadeh, an Ibero-American Affairs expert, to discuss the widespread protests in major Brazilian cities for and against sacked president Dilma Rousseff .

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: I am wondering, how do you feel about where Brazil stands now that of course Rousseff has been ousted in the impeachment and it seems that of course there are both pro and anti-Temer rallies taking place?

Vahidzadeh: Exactly. As we had chances before in these programs talking about the situation in Brazil I predicted that if the impeachment [that] is going against Ms. Rousseff is ending in putting her out of the office, it would be the new scenario of rallies in the country and right now we are seeing that Ms. Rousseff’s supporters and also Mr. Temer’s are going in separate rallies for each cause that they are proclaiming.

So right now here the situation is going to a new era. This new era can go either way. It depends on how these two political figures are going to talk with their supporters. Right now the stance that Mr. Temer had took yesterday was upon that the supporters of him are very more than what is going in the Rousseff’s party and called them not more than 200 people in the streets which is not correct.

Mainly the Workers’ Party’s strategy here is to push for new elections and if the clashes going on between the two sides, we have not seen any violent protest right now, the violence is not that significant, but if it goes to a new era of violence, if the gangs that were put aside by Ms. Rousseff during her mandate come back to power, it would be a disaster in the streets because the measure that she took for securing the Olympics and also the World Cup was huge, that we could see Rio was a great place, was a peaceful place but these gangs that are very powerful can take advantage from this situation and rise again into power.

So in this scenario it would be a disaster for Mr. Temer but if he can manage somehow to negotiate with the Workers’ Party to push forward the reforms that he is claiming that it could help Brazilian economy and somehow put a peaceful solution here, it can be a peaceful solution for the Brazilians until the upcoming election in 2018. If not, we will certainly see a new protest that would be more violent, that would be more drastic and with the presence of millions not only thousands or hundreds.

Press TV: I am wondering, Mr. Temer at the moment, he essentially became President and signed on the dotted line, left the country to go to G20 Summit and he has of course said that he will fix the economy which is obviously the main issue in the country as in throughout the world. Do you think he is going to succeed in that regard?

Vahidzadeh: It is very difficult for him to get the success that Mr. Lula, the predecessor of Ms. Rousseff and somehow Ms. Rousseff had during these years because first of all the guarantee that the Brazilian government could give to the investors that right now the investments are secure in the country, Mr. Temer has a very difficult situation here to guarantee this for the foreigners.

Also the new reforms that Mr. Temer is going to push forward are based on neo-liberalism matters. This neo-liberalism put Brazil on its knees during the dictatorship and the era before Mr. Lula. So he wants to go with these methods, maybe in the first two years or three years it could be helpful just to put a peaceful solution on the country and on the society that is going against him because of different matters, somehow the inflation, the recession and the jobless points but after these two or three years if he wants to go with the pure neo-liberalism, he and his party cannot succeed in this matter. So it is very based on how he wants to change his method.

Right now he is just going to keep the power. He is just going to have all the things to secure his position in the presidential office until the upcoming elections and he is not afraid of taking any measures that could secure this office for him until the upcoming elections.

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