Brazilian Vice-President Michel Temer has further distanced himself from the president with a letter of complaints, moving into a position from which his allies say he can make a full break from her troubled government or lead the country outright if she is impeached by Congress.
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A banner displaying pictures of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is pictured in front of a banner displaying President of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha as people attend a protest against the impeachment proceedings against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseffs, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. However, even a delay was good news for Rousseff, who a year into her second term is fighting for her political life.
Opponents who initiated the impeachment bid accuse her of breaking budget rules to boost spending during her re-election campaign a year ago.
Rousseff is not under investigation in the kickback scandal.
Brazil came one step closer to losing its prized investment-grade credit rating on Wednesday when Moody’s Investors Service said it was studying a possible downgrade because of the deteriorating economy, widening fiscal deficit and increasing risks of political paralysis.
The ultra-conservative politician says the charges are politically motivated and has fought fiercely to retain his post.
The house voted in a tumultuous session earlier on Tuesday to appoint the impeachment committee.
Cunha pushed the vote forward Tuesday evening.
According to Congresso em Foco, a prominent Brasilia watchdog group, a third of the lawmakers named on the committee are under investigation by the Supreme Court for corruption, money laundering, electoral fraud and other crimes.
The cautionary measure by the court suspends all work of the commission to establish whether Rousseff incurred in illegal maneuvers to justify her removal from office, until at least December 16.
Fachin issued an injunction in response to a motion brought by the Brazilian Communist party which challenged the procedure adopted for handling the proceedings against Rousseff and, in particular, the fact that the selection of the committee members had been done in secret.
For the Wall Street Journal Rogerio Jelmayer reports on the suspension of proceedings against President Rousseff. Both released identical, one-sentence comments after the meeting saying they agreed to have a “productive relation”.
Picciani was replaced as leader of the PMDB Wednesday morning with Leonardo Quintao, who supports impeachment.
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If the committee is deemed valid and finds against Rousseff, the process will go to a full vote on the house floor, where the opposition needs two-thirds of the votes to begin a 180-day impeachment trial in the Senate. The turmoil is stirring passions across the South American country of 204 million people, where Rousseff’s Workers’ Party has been in power since 2003 with the help of its often uncomfortable coalition partner, the centrist PMDB.
