Brazil’s Senate formally launched a trial Thursday against suspended President Dilma Rousseff, the final step in a months-long impeachment process against the Workers’ Party leader that has been widely condemned both at home and overseas as a parliamentary coup.
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The president’s trial will begin Thursday, August 25th, in Brazil’s Senate.
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.
In May, the upper house of the Brazilian parliament voted 55-22 to start impeachment proceedings against Rousseff after she was accused of concealing the country’s budget deficit ahead of the 2014 election. She has denied breaking any laws, and likened the effort to remove her from office to a coup d’é tat.
A study carried out by Globo has claimed that 52 are now planning to vote against her, with only 19 supporting her and 10 yet to decide.
That decision led to the temporary suspension of President Dilma Rousseff, who is widely expected to lose the final trial that will wrap up by Wednesday next week.
A poll shows that 51 senators will vote to dismiss Rousseff, 19 will support her and 11 are undecided.
The first day of Brazil’s impeachment trial was surprisingly undramatic, even tedious, considering it’s the most important political event in the country’s recent history.
Rousseff is charged with spending without congressional approval and manipulating government accounts in the run-up to her 2014 re-election. They also argue that Brazil’s ruling class wants to end 13 years of leftist government.
If she is stripped of her presidential status, Rousseff could find herself in court in an investigation into whether she and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tried to obstruct the Petrobras corruption probe.
Just days after the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics, Brazilian senators are about to decide whether to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, the climax of a months-long political battle that has laid bare deep polarization in Latin America’s largest nation.
Rousseff’s rivals blame her for economic chaos and are out to crush her Workers’ Party.
Ms Rousseff, who was tortured and imprisoned by the 1970s dictatorship for membership in a Marxist urban guerrilla group, calls the process a coup. “For our part there will be respect, but that will also depend on the position the president brings”.
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.
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.
However, his centre-right coalition and choice of market-friendly ministers have raised expectations that he can get the economy back on track.
The economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is forecast to drop about 3.3 percent again this year, a historic recession.
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“I agree that Dilma must leave power”.
