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 The 40-foot (12-meter) high duck presides over Sao Paulo's Avenida
Paulista, Brazil's economic nexus. It has landed on the esplanade in
the capital Brasilia, while its ducklings swam in the reflecting
pool outside Congress.
The duck and its brood have also hit the sands of Copacabana Beach,
a prime place to see and be seen in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil's business leaders have adopted the duck to fight against
what they describe as the economic quackery of Rousseff, a leftist
who is facing growing pressure to quit and struggling to pull the
economy out of its deepest recession in 25 years.
"Enough of paying the duck," said Paulo Skaf, president of the
Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo, in a video
earlier this month urging Brazilians to demonstrate against
Rousseff's government.
"To pay the duck" in Brazilian Portuguese means to unfairly pay for
someone else's mistakes.
 The term's origin is unclear but the saying is common enough for the
federation to employ it against what it sees as the failures of
Rousseff's administration.
Since she took office in 2011, Brazil's economy has gone from being
one of the world's fastest growing major economies to one of its
worst performers, contracting by 3.8 percent in 2015, as the
commodities boom ended and a wide-ranging corruption scandal hit
investor confidence.
Last year, when Rousseff proposed a new levy to help compensate
plummeting tax revenues, the Sao Paulo federation inflated the giant
duck in the capital Brasilia while its counterpart in Rio took it to
Copacabana.
Now, the duck has taken up residence in Sao Paulo outside the
federation building, striking a colorful note on the somber Avenida
Paulista, which has hosted the biggest demonstrations supporting the
ouster of Rousseff. She faces impeachment proceedings in Congress.
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The marches have underscored growing tensions between classes in
what remains one of the world's most economically stratified
societies.
The recession has cost Rousseff and her ruling Workers' Party
support among blue-collar Brazilians, who have borne the brunt of a
downturn marked by the loss of 1.5 million jobs last year.
But the working class, even if disgruntled, has not wanted to
associate itself with those who have most visibly turned out against
Rousseff: white-collar types who never supported her to begin with.
On Friday, as office workers toiled in the towers high over the
duck's perch, a gaggle of pro-government demonstrators gathered for
a rare display of support for Rousseff.
Denouncing anti-government protests as "nothing more than a
privileged class out to defend their luxuries," Cleber Goncalves, a
36-year-old teacher, scoffed at the duck.
"It's just a silly symbol thought up by the elite," he said. "They
are always trying to fool the people."
(Writing by Paulo Prada; Editing by Mary Milliken)
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