Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was thrown a lifeline by the Supreme Court in her fight against impeachment, while her chief antagonist faced troubles of his own Wednesday in Congress, where he is accused of corruption.
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Brazilian prosecutors have charged Cunha with corruption in connection with an investigation into a massive kickback scheme involving contracts with state-run oil company Petrobras. Leaders of Rousseff’s leftist Workers’ Party (PT) see his silence as evidence that Temer is conspiring behind their backs to unseat the president and step into her shoes.
The decision late on Tuesday by a judge appointed by the president has stopped the creation of the committee until Brazil’s top court can meet on December 16 to decide whether the unprecedented secret ballot was valid.
The suspension was made in response to an appeal from Rousseff allies that the opposition had illegally insisted on secret votes – not the usual open ballots – while picking who would sit on the congressional commission.
Rousseff, in office since 2011, has denied wrongdoing.
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.
This gave much-needed breathing space to Ms Rousseff, who less than a year into her second term, is fighting for her political life.
He denies the charges, which he says are politically motivated.
The lower house speaker, who started the investigation of the corruption scandal, has also been the subject of investigations for allegedly taking bribes and “holding secret Swiss bank accounts in his name”.
The Communist Party of Brazil, a small party in Rousseff’s coalition, raised the constitutional issue in an injunction filed last week.
In a setback for the president, the party replaced him on Wednesday with Leonardo Quintao, a congressman less sympathetic to her.
Ms Rousseff was left reeling by indications in a leaked letter that her vice-president Michel Temer, leader of the PMDB, could withdraw his support because he felt she had shown “absolute lack of confidence” in him.
Citing advisors, the Globo TV network reported that Rousseff and Temer decided that the issue of impeachment would not come up at their future meetings, that Temer would not have to make public statements supporting the government and that he would not work toward her impeachment.
The Brazilian president faces the very real possibility of being removed from office in what her supporters call a parliamentary coup, seeing it as an effort to retroactively win the 2014 election through non-democratic means.
Adding to Brazil’s political crisis is a growing rift between Rousseff and her vice president, whose fractious PMDB party is divided over the impeachment of the president and moving closer to breaking away from her coalition.
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“Removal of Picciani from the PMDB leadership hastens the dismantling of Rousseff’s parliamentary base”, said Senator Aloysio Nunes of the main opposition PSDB party.
