Thousands of left-wing militants demanded that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva step down today as new allegations of tax evasion by his ruling party added fuel to a corruption scandal.
Demonstrators carrying banners saying "Lula Out!" marched through the capital Brasilia in the first mass protest against the president since allegations surfaced eleven weeks ago that the ruling Worker's Party bribed lawmakers to support legislation.
The protest - estimated by police to have 12,000 to 15,000 marchers - was larger than a 6,000-strong pro-Lula rally held yesertday.
"Lula is the head of all this organised crime. At the end of the investigation he has to be impeached," said Georges Michel, president of the Democratic Labor Party, or PDT, one of four parties represented at the rally. All have been opposed to Mr Lula since before the scandal broke in June.
Allegations that Mr Lula's former aides and Workers' Party officials used public funds to buy the support of lawmakers and finance campaigns have sparked Brazil's worst political crisis since President Fernando Collor faced impeachment and resigned in 1992.
Four ruling party leaders and Mr Lula's former Cabinet chief Jose Dirceu resigned because of accusations they ran the scheme. Mr Lula has not been directly implicated in wrongdoing.
Centrist parties have eased up on calls for his impeachment and government supporters who had been silent have begun to vocally support the president. But left-wing parties accuse Mr Lula of betraying 2002 election promises to reduce poverty and clean up politics because he allied himself with centrist and right-wing parties to pass market-friendly reforms and limit public spending.
Support for Mr Lula, Brazil's first working-class president, is slipping, and a poll last week showed for the first time he could lose in a second-round vote in the 2006 race.
The scandal moved closer to him when an illegal money changer yesterday accused the Workers' Party of evading taxes with foreign bank accounts and said he transferred funds abroad for Brazil's Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos.
The imprisoned money changer Antonio Oliveira Claramunt told a Congressional inquiry he would release evidence in return for a shorter sentence. He said he could prove that Mr Dirceu, Brazil's Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles and Progressive Party leader Jose Janene had all transferred money abroad without informing the government, which is illegal.
Lawmakers reacted with caution to the allegations, and said Claramunt had to give more testimony. In a statement, Mr Bastos said his transfers were legal and allegations were a reprisal against him after Federal Police imprisoned a string of black market currency dealers or "doleiros."