DHAKA: Protesting a sluggish economy, rising prices and corruption - and to call for the impeachment of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff, nearly a million demonstrators marched in cities and towns across Brazil on Sunday.

The protests in the continent-sized country come as Brazil struggles to overcome economic and political malaise and pick up the pieces of a boom that crumbled about the time Rousseff took office in 2011, reports the Jerusalem Post.

The unexpectedly large demonstrations also promise to embolden opposition parties and restive allies, including the leaders of both houses of Congress, who are nominally part of Rousseff’s ruling coalition, but nonetheless are hindering efforts to pass reforms intended to jump-start the economy.

BDST: 1034 HRS, MAR 16, 2015