Brazilian senators voted Wednesday to dismiss the country’s first female president who was accused of crimes of responsibility.
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Senators voted 61-20 to convict Rousseff for illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending.
Passionate closing arguments by Rousseff’s accusers and speeches by her allies appeared to do little to tip the balance in her favor in the hours before the impeachment decision.
She had been accused of altering financial documents to keep government programs running despite a massive budget deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014.
A separate vote will be held on whether Rousseff will be barred from public office for eight years.
Former vice president Michel Temer has been sworn in as Brazil’s new leader following the ousting of President Dilma Rousseff.
A general election is scheduled for 2018.
The once mighty Workers’ Party, meanwhile, has struggled to stage more than small rallies.
“If Rousseff is ousted and the new, unelected government commits itself to the failed economic strategy of the ‘lost decades, ‘” he concluded, “it could be a long time before the majority of Brazilians recover the living standards that they reached a couple of years ago”. Numerous ministers he named in the new government have resigned since Rousseff’s suspension in May because of the pressures and feared scandal of a number of graft investigations.
While Rousseff has vowed to fight for Brazil and democracy, she now has two options. 42 senators voted to preserve her political rights, while 36 voted against.
Her opponents, however, have hailed the chance to turn the page on a drawn-out political crisis, the country’s worst recession in generations and a sweeping corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras.
Emotions ran high, Lulu reports: “There was this surreal moment, where one of the prosecutors, Jenaina Paschoal, who was advocating Rousseff’s impeachment – she burst into tears in her closing argument”.
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“The Brazilian people must be aware that nothing illegal and illegitimate is being done here”, she said. “She asked for Rousseff’s forgiveness because she did not mean to cause Rousseff pain”, Lulu says.
