Brazil’s problems can not be solved merely by a change at the top.
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Temer honed his craft over more than a decade in Brazil’s bare-knuckle lower house of Congress, where he was an ally to both centrist President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff’s predecessor and mentor.
The decision to remove Rousseff also leaves many question marks over the economy, which is expected to decline for a second straight year.
New president, inherits problems Rousseff faced.
For years, President Dilma Rousseff and Vice President Michel Temer had a political partnership of convenience. Waldemir Moka said. As Brazil continues to wade through the longest recession since the 1930s, its once burgeoning middle class is feeling the pinch. Once heralded for a sustained economic boom that helped more than 30 million people out of poverty, it finished in the midst of deep recession and with government finances in tatters. The Senate chief, a member of Temer’s party, is under investigation for corruption as well.
Temer has vowed to boost an economy that has shrunk for six consecutive quarters and implement austerity measures to plug a record budget deficit, which cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating past year. Brazil’s currency has rebounded slightly against the dollar.
Temer had already begun drawing up market-friendly austerity reforms after taking over in an interim role after Rousseff’s initial suspension in May.
“This is a moment of hope, to rebuild trust in Brazil”. Uncertainty has come to an end.
New President hasn’t had the greatest track record. Michel Temer, who assumed the interim presidency after Rousseff was suspended in May, was quickly sworn in as president of the country. The vote was 61 to 20.
A general election is scheduled for 2018.
The veteran center-right politician, whom Rousseff accuses of using the impeachment process to mount a coup, was then to leave for a G20 summit in China.
When Temer announced the opening of the Olympics on August 5, he was so vociferously booed that he remained out of sight for the remainder of the games. Both have young democracies, lagging economic growth and high unemployment, while government is littered with corruption scandals. Rousseff has accused Temer of being the ringleader behind the push to oust her, accusations that he has denied. She has accused her critics of having done far worse. Although he hasn’t been officially charged, federal police recommended charging him of accepting kickbacks for lucrative construction contracts. Brazilian envoys to Bolivia and Ecuador have also been ordered home.
“The world needs to know that we are not just voting about accounting issues”, said Janaina Paschoal, the author of the impeachment request against Rousseff.
In the day’s surprise twist, a separate vote to bar Rousseff from holding any public office for eight years failed to pass, meaning she could in theory re-enter political life.
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Rousseff was Brazil’s first female president, with a career that includes a stint as a Marxist guerrilla jailed and tortured in the 1970s during the country’s dictatorship.
