Brazil's Angry Middle Class

摘要

On 26 May 2014, just a few weeks ahead of the World Cup, an angry crowd surrounded the Brazilian football team in Rio de Janeiro. Striking teachers attacked the team bus as it left the city's international airport, protesting the government's vast expenditure on preparations for the event and neglect of the education system. Heavily armed military police were called in to clear a path for the vehicle, and have followed the players ever since. For many Brazilians, passion for football was supplanted by demands for better infrastructure, salaries and quality of life: the 12 June Brazil-Croatia game that opened the tournament followed a year in which one person was killed and hundreds were estimated to have been injured in demonstrations around the country. This article went to press before the four-week-long competition had finished; football mania was at the time returning to Brazil. The country's mood was likely to be affected by the final result.