Fighting to save her job, suspended President Dilma Rousseff addresses the Senate on Monday in a showdown pitting accusations that the she hurt Brazil’s economy with budget manipulations against her argument that she did nothing wrong and is being targeted by corrupt lawmakers.
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With the odds stacked against her, Rousseff’s testimony appeared more aimed at making a point for the history books, rather than a bid to sway a handful of wavering senators.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff speaks at her own impeachment trial, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.
If it goes against Ms Rousseff, her vice president, Michel Temer, who has been interim president since mid-May, will be sworn in to serve the rest of her term.
The long-awaited trial saw Rousseff claim once again that she has been the victim of a “political coup d’etat” led by those she defeated at the polls in the last elections.
The Senate was due on Tuesday to begin proceedings for a final vote on whether to remove her permanently.
Her exit would end more than 13 years of government by the Workers Party, which were marked by the rise of Brazil as a global economic power under former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil’s Rousseff says “future of Brazil at stake” in Senate trial was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 30, 2016 and was last updated on August 30, 2016.
Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is telling senators that she is being unjustly accused of breaking fiscal rules in her management of the federal budget.
Rousseff is reminding senators that she was re-elected in 2014 by 54 million voters.
Rousseff’s side says that decline was caused by forces far beyond the president’s control, notably a worldwide slump in commodity prices, which hit exports hard. The statement said Temer would not raise the retirement age to 70 or 75, eliminate sick pay or roll back labor laws.
Addressing a packed Senate, Ms Rousseff commanded the hushed floor for 45 -minutes to repeat her denials of wrongdoing amid allegations of creative accounting, staunchly refusing to resign or abandon her cause.
A small crowd of loyalists gathered from early morning outside the Senate and supporters shouted “Dilma come back!” from cars as they drove past the building’s entrance.
As questioning of the suspended leader wore on Monday night, only a few senators were paying attention to Rousseff’s answers, which tended to be lengthy.
Although Rousseff spoke mostly in a measured tone, her voice cracked and she appeared close to tears while recalling her suffering as a young leftist guerrilla and in battling cancer.
“Curiously, I will be judged for crimes I did not commit before the trial of the former speaker who is accused of very serious illegal acts”, she said. “I did not commit a crime”. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who presided, warned the public and senators not to applaud or otherwise interrupt Rousseff’s speech.
“I will vote against her even though I think it is a tragedy to get rid of an elected president, but another 2-1/2 years of a Dilma government would be worse”, centrist Senator Cristovam Buarque said in a phone interview.
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Senator Otto Alencar said he suspected none would change their minds and that his vote against impeachment was a “vote for a lost cause”.
