OREANDA-NEWS. Major protests took place in almost all states throughout Brazil, gathering hundreds of thousands of supporters of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

If reinstated, Rousseff has said she would call a referendum on holding early elections. According to surveys by Brazilian media, up to a dozen of the 55 senators who voted last month to put Rousseff on trial are now undecided. If just a couple of those change sides, the Temer camp would lose the 54 votes it needs – two-thirds of the 81-seat Senate – to convict Rousseff.

On Friday, activists, student associations, trade unions, took to the streets to protests against what they term a “coup” and the functioning of the interim government led by Michel Temer.

Organisers claimed 100,000 people attended the protests across the country. No official estimates were made available.

“Temer, as a constitutional lawyer you know that what you did was not right. Give the power back to the people and to Dilma and try to gain the Presidency in the next election,” Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff’s predecessor and political mentor, said at a gathering in Sao Paulo.

“The most important thing for the social movements gathered here is stopping the impeachment, stopping the coup,” said Vagner Freitas, head of Brazil’s largest trade union CUT.

President Rousseff was suspended on May 12 when the Brazilian Senate voted 55-22 to put her on trial for allegedly breaking budget laws.

Meanwhile almost 20,000 people gathered in Rio on Friday to protest against the ouster, organizers said, where prominent local politicians participated in the citizens protest calling for Rousseff’s return to office.

Cities like Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and Recife also saw anti-government protests.