Nine months since impeachment proceedings began for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, the last stage of the process is finally underway.
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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.
Rousseff denies wrongdoing. Instead, she says her enemies are conducting a “coup”.
Rousseff was temporarily suspended for up to 180 days on May 12 and her Vice President Michel Temer took over the presidency on an interim basis.
Her impeachment would bring an end to 13 years of Workers’ Party rule. As the economy worsened, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in early 2015, with many demanding the ouster of Rousseff and her left-leaning Workers’ Party. Many have also pointed out that the practice has always been common among Brazil’s past presidents, reinforcing claims that the impeachment process has been a thinly-veiled power grab by the country’s conservative elite to revive neoliberal politics.
Others tried to defend the deposed president, questioning how anyone in the Senate could responsibly judge her, given that so many are under criminal investigations themselves. Both the defense and the prosecution parties will address the senators.
Rousseff was accused of seeking to hide public budget deficits through fiscal irregularities, such as delaying loan payments to public banks and ordering additional loans without congressional approval.
Allies, including former economy minister Nelson Barbosa, will argue that the budgetary maneuvers were common practice in previous governments and had never been considered illegal. If fewer than 54 vote against her, she will be immediately returned to office.
If she is removed from office, her center-right former vice president turned rival Michel Temer will be sworn in to serve until 2018.
Financial markets have rallied at the prospect of an impeachment, but Brazil’s financial and political woes are far from over.
Temer’s team has sought to speed up the trial so he can set about restoring confidence in a once-booming economy and remove any doubts about his legitimacy as Brazil’s president.
Witnesses testimonies will be heard Thursday in a session that “does not have time to finish”, according to Lewandowski.Rousseff is expected to present her defense sometime next week before a final vote on her political fate is held by the full Senate. Temer plans to travel to the September 4-5 Group of 20 leaders’ summit in China as soon as impeachment is over.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a rally in support of democracy and against the coup, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
Rousseff, who once belonged to a left-wing guerrilla group, said she has refused to resign to make the point that she is being ousted illegally.
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In a sign that Rousseff is not expecting a favourable verdict next week, she has begun to move her personal belongings out of the presidential residence in Brasilia to her home in Porto Alegre.
