BRASILIA (Reuters) - Thousands of women farmers marched through Brazil's capital on Wednesday in a show of support for President Dilma Rousseff ahead of nationwide protests on Sunday calling for her impeachment.
The "March of the Daisies," organised by leftist groups linked to Rousseff's Workers Party, attracted about 35,000 farmers to Brasilia's downtown area, according to official estimates.
Rousseff is expected to address them later on Wednesday at the National Stadium, where the march is to culminate.
A severe economic downturn and dwindling popularity have raised calls for Rousseff to be impeached seven months into her second term as president. Her opponents are organising marches on Sunday that are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people around the country.
In a fiery speech on Tuesday night, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff's mentor and predecessor, told the farmers "some people have yet to realise the election ended on October 26 and Dilma is the president of this country."
Opinion polls show seven out of 10 Brazilians want Rousseff to be impeached, holding her responsible the downturn in Latin America's largest economy and a massive corruption scandal
at state-run oil company Petrobras.
(Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Alonso Soto, Toni Reinhold)
