Rousseff is accused of illegally doctoring accounts ahead of her re-election in 2014 to hide a budget shortfall and to keep funding popular social programs, reports the CNN.
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Brazil’s Senate opened a historic impeachment trial on Thursday that is expected to result in President Dilma Rousseff’s permanent ouster and give her successor Michel Temer some of the legitimacy he needs to revive economic growth.
Following Rousseff’s likely impeachment, Vice President Temer- who is now serving as acting president- will be sworn in as the official president of Brazil.
The impeachment push started late previous year when Eduardo Cunha, then the speaker of the lower House of Deputies and a long-time Rousseff nemesis, introduced the measure. In April, the Chamber of Deputies approved it 367-137 and in May, the Senate voted 55-22 in favor.
Janaína Paschoal, an attorney and law professor who helped author the impeachment lawsuit, rejected accusations that she was carrying out a political witch hunt against Rousseff.
Should Rousseff be impeached, Temer would complete her mandate until the end of 2018 and she would be ineligible to stand for public office for eight years.
Many senators can barely disguise their eagerness to finish Rousseff off – and inflict lasting damage on the once mighty Workers’ Party. Rousseff is expected to give her speech on August 29. The impeachment – labeled a coup by many Brazilians – has generated outrage and frequent protests in Brazil, including during the Olympic Games in Rio. “There are those who view this entire process as something that was manipulated by Temer and his Brazilian Democratic Movement party (PMDB)”.
In her last rally before the trial, in the auditorium of a bank workers union in Brasilia on Wednesday night, Rousseff supporters chanted “Out with Temer”.
“I never thought I was going to be elected senator to judge, in a questionable trial, the first woman elected president of the country”, said Hoffman. “It’s very sad for me”.
The probe has blown the lid off a political culture of corruption that spans the ideological spectrum: About 60 percent of lawmakers in the Senate and lower house are being investigated for various crimes, many related to graft and the Petrobras scandal. In her case, investigators are looking at whether she used embezzled funds from Petrobras as campaign contributions.
The trial will climax Monday when the president, who was suspended from office in May, addresses the Senate herself for the first time.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff arrives at a rally in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. Brazil¿s Senate braces for a final showdown in a trial that could overthrow President Rousseff after months of lengthy proceedings in Congress.
The independent Federal Prosecutor’s office concluded last month that Rousseff did not violate any fiscal laws. Rousseff’s hopes for resuming her presidency are waning as the process enters the final stage.
“The real problem of Temer is his own support base”, said Carvalho Teixeira, who works at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian research group and business school. Pictured in the background is Senate leader Renan Calheiros.
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Rousseff has repeatedly tried to challenge the impeachment process in court, with Chief Justice Lewandowski on Tuesday denying the latest request.
