Millions in Brazil take to the streets in massive demonstrations

An estimated three million people are thought to have taken part in more than 100 protests across Brazil on Sunday in what the country's top newspapers hailed as the largest political demonstrations there ever.

The mass outcry is over BrazilianPresident DilmaRousseff, who is facing a growing backlashamid the worst recession in decades and a sprawling corruption investigation that has closed in on key figures in her Workers' Party.

Sao Paulo streets were jam-packed with protesters.

Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city and an opposition stronghold, said as many as 1.4 millionprotesters took part withmanyfocusing their march on Paulista Avenue.

Corruption allegations a problem for former president.

A giant inflatable doll known as Pixuleco, depictingBrazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took to the sky over Sao Paulo on Sunday. There was also a giant yellow duck.

Among other issues, federal investigators aretrying todetermine if Silva sold his influence in the current administration
in exchange for speeches and donations to his non-profit foundationInstituto Lula.

Rousseff has so far refused to resign.

Rousseff, who gathered her closest advisors for a Monday morning meeting in the Planalto presidential palace, categorically ruled out resigning last week. She said it was objectionable to demand the resignation of an elected president without concrete evidence the leader had violated the constitution.

Impeachment proceedings are expected to beginthis week.

Lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a Rousseff foe, is expected toform a commission to begin impeachment proceedings sometime thisweek.

"Surprised by the strong turnout on Sunday, the government has been put on alert that it needs to act quickly" toavoidRousseff'simpeachment, a report in the newspaperFolhasaid Monday.

Sunday's protests may have beenthe largest ever in Brazil.

Sunday'santi-Rousseffdemonstrations are thought to have beenlarger than the mass protests in 1984 that called for direct presidential elections amid the country's former military dictatorship.

No major incidents, 'peaceful character' at protests.

The demonstrations, overwhelmingly comprised of the white, older middle-class people who have railed againstRoussefffor years, may have weakened the government but they don't seem to have strengthened the opposition.

No major incidents were reported in Sunday's protests. The government highlighted "the peaceful character" of the demonstrations in a statement late Sunday, saying they underscored "the maturity of a country that knows how to co-exist with different opinions and knows how to secure respect to its laws and institutions."