Then, the witnesses for the prosecution have begun to be heard.
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The impeachment push started late past year when Eduard Cunha, then the speaker of the lower House of Deputies and a long-time Rousseff nemesis, introduced the measure.
“Impeachment of Rousseff is a great victory for democracy, a liberation for our country from the left which wanted to hang on to power”, said Senator Janaina Paschoal, one of the authors of the impeachment petition against the president.
“As Rousseff prepares to take the stand in her defense on August 29, progressive groups and individuals from around the world have voiced concern and alarm over the impeachment process”.
She is also accused of manipulating the government’s budget deficit and interfering with government accounts. Opposition parties say that was to boost public spending and shore up support while masking the depths of deficits.
The statement follows other similar disapproval demonstrations of Rousseff’s impeachment in the US, such as the letter signed by 43 members of the House of Representatives in July and a statement by Senator Bernie Sanders at the beginning of the month.
She insists that numerous lawmakers who pushed for her impeachment want revenge because they were implicated in the investigation, notably Eduardo Cunha, who resigned as speaker of the lower house of Congress amid the scandal. They also argue that Brazil’s ruling class wants to end 13 years of leftist government.
“I committed no crime”.
Huge pro-impeachment protests erupted and even Rousseff’s electoral base – the country’s poor – turned away. “To judge the president, (senators) must act with the utmost impartiality and objectivity, considering only the facts they are presented and the laws”. Confident they will succeed with at least 60 votes, Temer allies are already discussing details of his inauguration ceremony and the removal of Rousseff portraits from government buildings. Rousseff was chairwoman of Petrobras for seven years, but she hasn’t been implicated in the investigation.
With 15 undecided voters, 48 senators voted yes for the impeachment, and 18 no, on Thursday.
Financial markets have rallied at the prospect of an impeachment, but Brazil’s financial and political woes are far from over. Meanwhile, those leading the impeachment campaign, including former lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha and the interim president Michel Temer are accused of bribery and illegal campaign contributions.
A draft budget for next year is not expected in Congress until August 31, after the Senate vote, by which time Temer could have more political leverage to push through unpopular austerity measures.
Temer’s team has sought to speed up the trial so he can set about restoring confidence in a once-booming economy and remove any doubts about his legitimacy. But before new elections could occur, both Rousseff and Temer would have to resign or be removed from office. He is then expected to address the nation before heading to the summit of the G20 group of leading economies in China on September 4-5.
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A survey published by O Globo newspaper on Thursday showed that 52 senators were committed to voting to dismiss Rousseff, with only 19 supporting her and 10 undecided or not polled. “He should say he is going to run in 2018, to find out whether he would be elected by the vote of the Brazilian people”, he said.
