Topline

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Brazil’s largest cities Saturday to protest President Jair Bolsonaro amid a congressional investigation into his handling of Covid-19 and widespread public outcry over his slow and often skeptical response to a pandemic that’s killed over 450,000 Brazilians.

Key Facts

People demonstrated in over a dozen cities, including the capital of Brasilia and the country’s two largest metro areas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The protests were reportedly organized by trade unions and left-wing groups calling for Bolsonaro’s impeachment, faulting him for allowing Brazil to suffer the world’s second deadliest Covid-19 outbreak after the United States.

Bolsonaro has shrugged at his country’s death toll and openly derided public health measures, calling people who are cautious of Covid-19 “sissies.”

The protests come weeks after Brazil’s Senate launched an investigation into Bolsonaro’s controversial response to the pandemic and slow vaccine rollout.

Big Number

26%. That’s the share of Brazilian adults who rate Bolsonaro’s job performance as good or excellent, according to an April poll by political news outlet Poder360. Some 44% of the country primarily blames Bolsonaro for the Covid-19 crisis.

Tangent

Bolsonaro is expected to run for reelection next year. He could face a challenge from former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist whose oft-criticized prison sentence on corruption charges was overturned earlier this year.