The popularity of President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil has fallen dramatically just five months after she entered her second term.
More than two million people demonstrated recently and called for her impeachment. The protests took part in cities in all 27 states of Brazil, making it the largest political demonstration since military rule ended in 1985.
The crisis has been building since she first took office in 2011. In her first ten months six ministers fell because of allegations of corruption. This was followed by senior members of and her left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) being convicted of a vote-buying scheme which took place in the national Congress.
The problems lurched forward when police began investigating a multi-billion bribe scheme which allegedly funnelled money from the state-controlled oil giant, Petrobras, to the PT.
Of the 34 sitting politicians under investigation, 32 are members of Rousseff’s coalition, including the speakers of both houses of Congress, and the party's treasurer. Rousseff was chairman of the company’s administrative board at the time.
To make matters worse, the economy is struggling and the growth indicators are poor. Stagnant growth will damage the country’s welfare programmes which are deemed PT’s greatest social achievement.
Some protesters want her impeachment. Most others simply want to show that they are fed up with sleaze and economic mismanagement, which has pushed up inflation and could trigger a recession this year.
Ms Rousseff's popularity has tumbled from 42% right after her re-election to just 23% in February.
