The combined economic and political crises gripping Brazilian capitalism, along with rapidly deepening social polarization, are creating conditions for a violent eruption of class struggle.
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The impeachment debate adds to an already long list of problems for the president: the worst scandal in the country’s history, popularity ratings that have slumped into single digits and a worsening recession. Brazil’s currency and local bond markets have posted deeper losses this year. “If impeachment is the way to get it then it’ll be welcomed by the market, but there are so many twists and things that can happen between now and then”.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff arrives at a press conference after impeachment proceedings were opened against her by the President of Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, at the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
Since her narrow re-election, Rousseff has faced repeated calls for her to be impeached or step down, though with no direct link to the Petrobras scandal, her opponents’ calls have until now gone unheeded.
The speaker’s decision will put the president’s support in Congress to a test after government and opposition spent months trying to rally politicians to their sides.
Rousseff has become Brazil’s most unpopular president in a generation as the once-booming economy has subsided into stagnation on her watch. After receiving Rousseff’s defense they will then have five sessions to make a decision to accept or reject the accusations. Recent opinion polls show that most Brazilians would like to see her impeached.
The president was defiant Wednesday night.
In a televised address to the nation, Ms Rousseff expressed her “outrage” at Mr Cunha’s decision and said there was not a grain of evidence or suspicion of any wrongdoings by her.
However, with Rousseff deeply unpopular and recession threatening to turn into depression, analysts say she can not be sure public support.
“I have not committed one illegal act”, Rousseff said on national television late Wednesday.
Cunha himself is facing allegations that he accepted kickbacks and hid the money in overseas accounts.
During her speech, she mentioned that unlike (Speaker) Cunha she “does not own any accounts overseas and has not concealed from public knowledge the existence of personal property”. They note it came after three key Workers’ Party deputies on the ethics committee voted for the investigation into his activities to continue. “The government may have problems, but you don’t correct the path by bringing down the president”, he said. “That needs to be done without the current government”, he told reporters.
Now that Cunha has greenlighted the impeachment request, a cross-party committee will be installed to analyze its merits.
The process will examine Rousseff’s possible connection to a huge corruption scandal at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras and the decision by Petrobras to buy an overpriced oil refinery in Pasadena, Tex., in 2006 when Rousseff was the company’s board chairwoman, officials said.
The petition now goes to a special committee made up of all political parties that must issue a recommendation whether impeachment hearings should start.
Dozens of lawmakers, majority members of the ruling coalition, have been implicated, while the CEO of Brazilian engineering giant Odebrecht is among those charged in the case with corruption and money laundering.
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Investors warmed to the assets after the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress opened proceedings against Rousseff.
