The Supreme Court’s decision gives her a few extra time to line up her supporters in Congress, although the speaker of the lower house Eduardo Cunha insisted on Tuesday he would continue to review impeachment requests despite the injunction.
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Mr Cunha has been leading calls for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, but he is now facing calls from other parties to step down.
Despite this week’s injunction, political analysts say Cunha’s recent comments have raised the likelihood of an impeachment process against Rousseff to 50%, up 20 percentage points in just six months.
October 16 Brazil’s government is considering raising a fuel tax and other duties to help rebalance its public accounts next year as it loses hope Congress will approve on time a controversial tax on financial transactions, three officials said on Friday.
Now the court-imposed delay has fueled feverish speculation in the capital Brasilia over how Cunha will play his next cards. While it has given him the final decision over the impeachment process, since he now either has to accept or reject it, this also means he could fall into the government’s crosshairs and could be expelled from his role of President of the House if he accepts an impeachment request.
Brazil’s Federal Police has opened a preliminary investigation into alleged irregularities in President Dilma Rousseff’s successful re-election campaign previous year, the Globo television network reported.
Rousseff has scrambled to contain Cunha.
But the opposition signaled Wednesday there’d be no let up in its drive against the unpopular president, saying it would file a new impeachment request with Cunha.
She was accused of borrowing money illegally from state banks to make up for budget shortfalls.
But Rousseff also underlined that she would not see any damage done to the massive homes-for-the-poor program launched by her leftist Workers’ Party – a key element in her government’s dwindling support base.
“Despite difficulties, the government must provide equal opportunities to the population”, she said, adding “people are different, but access to healthcare and education must be the same”.
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Earlier, reports emerged in the Brazilian media of a warning by the top army general that the political and economic turmoil threatens to turn into a “social crisis”.
