Brazil’s Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) President Dilma Rousseff is facing the initiation of congressional impeachment proceedings under conditions in which the country’s economy is sinking into a slump without precedent since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The speaker of the nation’s lower house says he’s opening the impeachment process based on accusations that Rousseff’s government broke fiscal responsibility laws this year.
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The Eurasia political danger consultancy stated professional-impeachment forces would not have the 2-thirds votes in Congress to oust Rousseff, and provides her a 60 % probability of serving out her time period.
The figures were substantially worse than expected and led analysts to predict that the downturn would continue to deepen next year.
If the lower house approves the start of impeachment hearings, Rousseff could become the second Brazilian leader to face impeachment proceedings (after Brazil’s 32nd president Fernando Collor de Mello). With no end in sight, this is the longest recession since the introduction of the Plano Real, in 1994, which helped to get inflation under control and manage the country’s economic crises.
“Cunha may also have insider information that the Supreme Court is planning to expel him as speaker of the lower house of Congress, or that Operation Car Wash [into the Petrobras kickback scandal] had been given more plea bargain testimony against him”, he said. “There are no rumors that I have diverted public funds, I have no bank account overseas, and I didn’t hide any personal property from the public”.
“A hasty impeachment process is unlikely to succeed given the lack of alignment between the main parties in congress”, the firm wrote.
Dozens of politicians, including Cunha, have been implicated in Brazil’s biggest ever corruption investigation into a price-fixing and political kickback scheme at the state oil company. On Tuesday came word that Brazil’s economy shrank by 1.7 percent during the third quarter of 2015.
The country’s GDP dropped 4.5 percent on an annual basis, the steepest decline since the current data series began almost 20 years ago. A final decision would then have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the upper house.
“Public pressure for impeachment could make the PT pull the rug out from underneath her feet and pressure Rousseff to quit, perhaps by feigning ill health, before too much damage is done to the party”, he added.
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Rousseff, the most unpopular Brazilian president in a generation, has faced mounting calls for her resignation for running the once-booming Brazilian economy to a standstill. He would remain in power if the Senate impeaches Rousseff or step aside if she is absolved.
