Over the past weeks, public discontent with the administration of President Dilma Rousseff has continued to rise, as the country’s economy remains stalled and a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal unfolds at the state-controlled oil company. Mass demonstrations on March 15th brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets protesting the Rousseff government, many calling for her resignation or impeachment. Her standing in the polls has dropped to unprecedented lows.
Some of the key questions we will be pursuing are: Is Brazil confronting a deep institutional crisis, or is it more a problem of a weakened chief executive that seems to have lost her footing? Can President Rousseff recover public support for her government? Is Dilma following an effective approach to deal with Brazil’s political, economic, and corruption problems? What more could and should she be doing? What are the prospects that she will resign or be impeached—and how costly would that be for Brazil’s democratic institutions?
Speakers
- Otaviano Canuto
Senior Advisor on BRICS, Development Economics Department, World Bank - Claudia Trevisan
Washington Correspondent, Estadão - Peter Hakim
President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue
