BRAZILIAN leftwingers and academics warned of attacks on the poorest on Tuesday after the lower house of Congress voted for a 20-year public spending freeze.

The Chamber of Deputies backed unelected President Michel Temer’s government on Monday night, voting 366-111 for the constitutional amendment capping annual spending increases to the rate of inflation.

The amendment still has to pass another supermajority vote in the chamber before being sent to the Senate. Communist Party of Brazil Congress minority leader Jandira Feghali called the vote the “second phase of the coup” — a reference to the August 31 Senate vote to impeach elected president Dilma Rousseff over allegations of corruption.