She has always insisted that these kind of creative accounting methods are perfectly legal as well as normal practice, but her defense on Monday put far more emphasis on describing the allegations as “pretexts to legitimize a coup” against her planned, she said, by the economic elite and leaders of the political opposition.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, people in Brazil keep protesting the impeachment process on the streets and have expressed support for the suspended president. During almost three years behind bars, she says she was tortured, including with electric shocks, before her release in 1972. All indications point to the Senate convicting Rousseff, ending 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party.
In a 30-minute speech during which her voice cracked on several occasions, Rousseff recalled her fight against dictatorship and highlighted her social welfare policies.
She was accompanied by heavyweight allies including her presidential predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and a dozen former cabinet members. She praised the country’s democratic progress, but added “today I fear the death of democracy”.
Ms. Rousseff gave a good speech, telling her supporters what they wanted to hear and placing her situation in Brazil’s historical context, but it is too late to change Senators’ minds, said Pedro Fassoni Arruda, a political scientist and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sã o Paulo.
About 2,000 supporters rallied in her support near the Senate building in the capital Brasilia, waving flags – a fraction of the crowds her Workers’ Party has drawn in the past.
On Sunday, August 28, a little calmer, she resorted to her lawyer, José Eduardo Cardozo, and her advisor, Sandra Brandão, who knows her administration’s figures thoroughly, to discuss the last adjustments to her speech – Rousseff says that it will be her most hard moment since she was suspended from office.
Ms Rousseff reminded senators that she was re-elected in 2014 by more than 54 million voters.
“I did not commit the crimes that I am arbitrarily and unjustly accused of”, Rousseff said, in what may be her last public appearance as president.
For her to be removed from the presidency permanently, 54 of the 81 senators would have to vote for her impeachment. Union and social movement leaders said it would be a different scene Monday during Rousseff’s testimony and later during the final vote expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
“During the fight against dictatorship my body was marked by torture”.
Mr Temer, who was Ms Rousseff’s vice-president, assumed the role of acting president in May when Ms Rousseff was suspended from office pending the impeachment trial.
Temer, 75, has been interim president since mid-May, when Rousseff was suspended after Congress decided it would continue the impeachment process that began in the lower house.
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.
While her presidency has been mired in the Petrobras embezzlement and bribery scandal, Rousseff herself has never been charged with trying to enrich herself – unlike many of her prominent accusers and close allies.
Advertisement
On Monday, embattled President Dilma Rousseff is due to make an appearance in front of lawmakers to argue her case. That included her staying away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this month, where Mr Temer watched over the opening ceremony instead.
