Eduardo Cunha, the former speaker of the lower house of Congress who launched process against her, is also facing numerous changes of corruption.
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“I have been uncompromising in the defense of honesty in government”, she said. The closest she got to admitting to any mistakes was when she said: “Like everyone, I have my flaws, and I make mistakes”.
This particular impeachment process is viewed as controversial and flawed because “the crime of responsibility, which is permitted for the impeachment, is not exactly what Rousseff is being accused of”, Matos said. What is at stake here, she stressed, is the respect for the polls, the sovereignty of the people and the Constitution; the social achievements over the last 13 years; the sovereign insertion of the country in the global scenario; the self-esteem of Brazilians and the defense of the country’s natural resources and its future.
Brazil’s suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, faced her country’s Senate on Monday, making one last case for herself as her impeachment trial nears its end.
Rousseff is accused of having taken illegal state loans to patch budget holes.
Lulu said the speech was never really going to be about persuading senators to vote against Rousseff’s impeachment.
She reminded senators of her past as a resistance fighter who opposed military rule and said that even when she was tortured she continued to fight.
For some context, pollster Ipsos said in a report in April that Rousseff’s approval rating was around 15%, while former US President Richard Nixon’s approval rating was 25% before he resigned and former US President Bill Clinton’s approval rating was 65% before his impeachment.
Ms Rousseff said Mr Temer’s administration would limit public spending and act in the interest of a small economic elite.
Dilma Rousseff is accused of illegally manipulating the budget to hide a growing deficit.
If it goes against her, interim president Michel Temer will be sworn in to take over the rest of Rousseff’s presidential term, through to 2018. The final vote to impeach must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of senators, or 54 votes.
Her appearance came on the fourth day of the trial and comes a day or two before the Senate votes on whether to oust her from the presidency.
Her speech appeared designed more for the history books than as an effort to sway the opinions in the chamber.
He plans to leave today or tomorrow on his first official foreign trip, a G20 summit in China, where officials say he will push to restore the tattered reputation of Brazil’s economy.
“I ask that you be just with an honest president”, Rousseff pleaded to the Senate on Monday. A vote to convict would remove her from office permanently.
The senators need to reach 54 of votes to impeach her.
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Tape recordings of phone conversations that surfaced soon after her suspension indicated that some of those lawmakers who supported the attempt to remove her were motivated by a desire to impede a sprawling investigation she had helped initiate into political corruption.
