Lulu said some 47 senators have signed up to address Dilma, either in support or condemnation.
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The impeachment process against Rousseff began to gather steam at the end of 2015 and led to her suspension from the presidency in May pending the senate trial that began last week.
Brasilia police said they were preparing for about 10,000 demonstrators on Monday and up to 30,000 during the impeachment vote session. Rousseff maintains she didn’t do anything illegal and is expected to counter that some of the lawmakers investigating her are under investigation for corruption.
The two were part of the armed resistance group during Brazil’s dictatorship.
“They wanted to take advantage of the economic crisis, because they knew that if my government had overcome it, their aspirations of access to power would have been buried for a long period of time”, she said.
“I was very strong then, and at nearly 70, I am still strong now”, Rousseff said.
“What’s at stake here is the future of our country”, she declared, saying that her government had worked to protect women, minorities, LGBT people and the poor and that the more-conservative interim government would undo that work.
Rousseff, 68, is on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in the administration of Brazil’s federal budget.
Senators are due to vote later this week on whether to remove her from office for good or whether to reinstate her.
During questioning that followed Rousseff’s 45-minute speech, pro-impeachment Senator Simone Tebet said that as president, Rousseff had criminally mismanaged Brazil’s accounts by taking the unauthorised loans.
“This has been a very dramatic beginning to the trial as many Brazilians expected”, said Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from the capital Brasilia.
She took the opportunity Monday to publicly accuse the opposition of forcing her out of office, describing herself as an honest politician and Temer as a “usurper”. All indications point to the Senate convicting Rousseff, ending 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party.
There are also some 20 former ministers, singer and poet Chico Buarque, leaders of leftist social movements and intellectuals.
They’re sitting in the gallery above the Senate.
The trial is being presided over by supreme court chief justice Ricardo Lewandowski who warned senators and spectators to remain silent before Ms Rousseff spoke.
She said she had been “unjustly accused” of crimes she said she had not committed. “I did not commit a crime”. Opponents say they will easily reach the needed two-thirds majority – 54 of 81 senators-to remove her from office. 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. However, there appeared to be little Rousseff could say to save her presidency.
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Many political observers have noted that Rousseff has never been accused of corruption, unlike numerous lawmakers with the power to vote whether to impeach her or not. She insists she’ll stick around to see out her term, but Tuesday’s vote will determine that. In that case, Rousseff’s former vice president turned political enemy, Michel Temer, will be confirmed as president until elections in 2018.
