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Dilma Rousseff proposes referendum on political reform

 The Brazilian president will also introduce a new £17bn public transport programme in

response to recent mass protests

 Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro The Guardian, Tuesday 25 June 2013

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has proposed a referendum on political reform and a new£17bn public transport programme in her latest attempt to mollify the protest movement

that brought more than a million people on to the streets last week.

After a meeting with mayors and governors of cities that have experienced the often violent

unrest, the president also promised new measures on health and job creation.

With four deaths confirmed so far from the continuing protests, the president has called for

peace and pledged to respond to the demands of the demonstrators.

"Brazil is ripe to advance," she said in a statement released by her office on Monday. "We

must also put a priority on tougher measures to combat corruption in all spheres."

Details of the reform referendum have yet to be fleshed out, but Rousseff said she would

immediately move to tighten penalties for corruption with a new law that would classify it as

a more serious crime.

Earlier in the day, she had also meet with organisers of the demonstrations, which started

earlier this month in opposition to a hike in bus and train fares but escalated to embrace

public anger over a range of issues, including poor public services and the high costs of 

hosting the World Cup.

Fleshing out a promise made last week, Rousseff said she would create a National Public

 Transport Council, funded with 50bn reals (£14.5m), that would work with civil society to

expand and strengthen urban mobility projects.

However, Mayara Longo Vivian, one of the leaders of the Free Fare Movement who metRousseff in Brasilia, told the Associated Press that no concrete measures were given to the

group and that their "fight would continue."

 The president, who was a Marxist guerrilla in her youth, has launched an increasingly broad

series of steps in the past week in response to public demands for change. After major

protests last Monday, she encouraged local government to drop plans for a hike in bus and

train fares, which had been the initial focus of the demonstrations. Following an even bigger

march last Thursday, she promised to channel billions of dollars of oil revenue into education

programs.

Many commentators have contrasted her willingness to respond to the voices on the street

with the more intractable stance taken by Turkey's leadership.

As well as her own background as a student radical, Rousseff's steps are also guided by

political and economic pragmatism. After the World Cup next year, she faces re-election.

Although she remains popular with an approval rate well over 50%, her ratings recently

slipped for the first time since she took office.

 The protests have also eroded confidence in the Brazilian economy, which has been in the

doldrums for the past year. Fearing violence, shopping malls in many cities closed early over

the weekend with a revenue loss estimated at about £350m. In the past month, Brazilian

stock prices are down by almost a fifth and the currency has lost more than 10% against the

dollar.

Demonstrations continue to take place every day, though none have come close to the scale

of the marches on Thursday that drew between 1 and 2 million people in 80 cities.

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 The death toll doubled on Monday when a vehicle rammed into a protest barricade in Goias

state, killing two women. Demonstrators also blocked a road into Brazil's busiest port,

Santos.

At the weekend, tens of thousands staged a demonstration in Belo Horizonte, leading to

clashes and tear gas when they moved close to a police perimeter around the stadium where

Mexico were playing Japan in a Confederations Cup match.

Smaller protests were also staged in Salvador, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and more than a

dozen other cities. More are planned in the coming days, though the intensity seems to haveebbed for the moment.