Shanghai: Brazil’s newly installed president Michel Temer said the Senate’s decision to allow former president Dilma Rousseff to maintain her political rights was a “small” embarrassment, and played down its significance to the stability of his government.
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Temer says he will take the opportunity at the G20 Summit to improve his country’s image.
“For more than 34 years I’ve been in public life and constantly followed these types of small embarrassments that are quickly overcome”, he told reporters.
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is convening an “extraordinary meeting” to discuss the “regional implications” of the dismissal of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s president.
Sworn in to serve out the remainder of Rousseff’s four-year presidential term up to the end of 2018, Temer said in China that Brazil and the world’s second-largest economy “should join hands bravely”, encouraging Chinese companies to invest in his country to boost economic and trade ties.
The impeachment process against Rousseff has dragged on for months. Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador withdrew their ambassadors and Brazil responded by recalling its envoys for consultations.
In May, Rousseff called the impeachment proceedings an attempt at a power grab by her rivals.
So far, all requests made by Rousseff’s defense on the merits of the impeachment process against her have been rejected by the high court, whose chief justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, presided over her impeachment trial.
“Uruguay hopes that in the framework of democratic institutions, the Brazilian people reach their goals of stability and development”, it said in a statement.
“When Brazil or when a president is impeached for a crime that they have not committed, the name we have for this in democracy – it’s not an impeachment, it is a coup”, she said after the Senate voted to launch the proceedings.
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Temer told Xi that he wanted to reiterate “the need to maintain the solid relationship that has been built up over time”.
