President Dilma Rousseff promised increased spending on her party’s most popular social program and took other measures aimed at her electoral base, less than two weeks before Brazil’s Senate is expected to vote in favor of the impeachment process she calls a coup d’etat.
At a rally of labor unions and Workers’ Party faithful in Sao Paulo on Sunday, Rousseff announced tax cuts, more public housing units and an average 9 percent increase in the cash transfer program known as Bolsa Familia, even as Brazil faces a record budget deficit. The May 1 rally, traditionally a celebration of worker rights and leftist policies, this year doubled as a protest against the drive toward impeachment approved by a wide margin in Brazil’s lower house. The Senate vote May 11 on Rousseff’s ouster.
