"Out with Temer" protests take place in six states.

247 - Protests demanding the resignation of interim president Michel Temer and the preservation of rights are already taking place in five Brazilian states. The demonstrations, organized by the People Without Fear and Popular Brazil fronts, began on Friday morning, May 10th, and are currently underway in Paraná, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, and Mato Grosso do Sul. Protests are planned in 23 states. 

In Maceió (AL), protesters gathered at Praça do Centenário, in the Farol neighborhood, and marched to the city center. The protest ended around 1 pm without any reported clashes. According to the organizers, approximately 3,500 people participated in the demonstration. The Military Police (PM) recorded the presence of 1,000 people.

In Campo Grande (MS), a doll named "Michel Terror" was carried at the head of the march that went through the main streets of the capital. The organizers say that 5 people participated in the event.

Meanwhile, in Paraíba, protesters blocked streets in Campina Grande to demand Temer's resignation and protest against changes to the pension system. According to the organizers, 1 people participated in the demonstration.

In Paraná, the Landless Workers' Movement blocked streets, protested in front of the INSS (National Social Security Institute) office and near the Getúlio Vargas Refinery, owned by Petrobras, in Araucária. Approximately 1,2 people participated in the protests. 

Meanwhile, in Mossoró (RN), members of the Oil Workers Union of Rio Grande do Norte (Sindipetro/RN) blocked the stretch of Km 46 of the BR-304 highway in Mossoró, in the western part of Rio Grande do Norte, this morning. According to the Federal Highway Police, about 200 protesters participated in the demonstration. 

Read the report from Agência Brasil about the protest in Rio de Janeiro: 

Rio de Janeiro hosts rally in defense of democracy and against the Temer government.

A symbolic embrace of the castle at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the institution's headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro, marked today (10) an act in defense of democracy in the country. With banners and posters against the interim government of Michel Temer, against the removal of President Dilma Rousseff, which for many was a coup, and in defense of the Unified Health System (SUS), the demonstration brought together around 500 people, including civil servants, students and outsourced workers, according to the organizers.

Linked to the Ministry of Health, Fiocruz brings together leading experts in Latin America in the field of public health. It offers courses to train highly skilled professionals and invests in advanced technology, such as in the manufacture of medicines and vaccines.

According to historian and Fiocruz researcher Carlos Fidelis Ponte, who participated in the event, the most recent statements from interim government authorities signal a loss of social rights, especially within the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system).

radicalization

"The proposals are radical. They alter the economic structure of healthcare and open key sectors of the economy, such as pre-salt oil reserves and the financing of social programs, to private initiative. We believe they have a very large impact and could affect generations. They shouldn't be proposed by an interim government that has only been in power for a month," he said.

Fiocruz employees also fear for the institution's autonomy in relation to the federal government. They recall the dismissal of the president of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), Ricardo Melo, by Michel Temer, during his legal term, in May. Measures like this, in Carlos Fidelis's opinion, threaten the tradition of internal elections for the foundation's presidency, where a shortlist of three names from employees is drawn up to preside over Fiocruz. The candidate with the most votes has been respected by the Presidency of the Republic and appointed to the position.

The event at Fiocruz is taking place simultaneously with a series of demonstrations by federal public servants against the interim government throughout the day in downtown Rio. At Largo da Carioca, 15 unions are gathered to protest the pension reform and the bill that proposes freezing salaries and laying off public servants in order to cut public spending.

IBGE

Denouncing a conflict of interest in the appointment of the new head of the agency, economist Paulo Rabello de Castro, employees of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) are protesting this afternoon. It is the first time in 13 years that someone from outside the company has assumed the leadership position. The civil servants want an internal election for the post.

"The nominee, a friend of the interim president, is linked to private interests, especially in the capital market, being the CEO of SR Rating and founder of RC Consultores. These credentials are absolutely incompatible with a management position at IBGE," states the institution's note, lamenting the manner in which Wasmália Bivar was removed from her post.

IBGE is the government agency responsible for calculating official inflation and the socioeconomic situation of the population. It produces approximately 220 documents used to guide public policies, ranging from calculating the social security factor to the Gross Domestic Product.