Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff continues the fight to save her job.
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She called the accusations against her “a pretext for a constitutional coup”, adding: “I’ve come to look your excellencies in the eye and to say that I did not commit a crime”.
Abreu also noted the impeachment process was launched by former Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a political ally-turned-adversary of Rousseff and her left-leaning Worker’s Party (PT).
Rousseff was given 30 minutes to speak and began her defence by reminding Senators that she had been re-elected by more than 54 million voters.
The Senate is scheduled to begin proceedings for a final vote on whether to remove her permanently sometime Tuesday.
Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff attends a Senate impeachment trial in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 29, 2016.
But in the Senate, Rousseff faced stern questions from rivals out to impeach her.
But even senators not convinced the accounting charges brought against Rousseff warrant her removal will vote against her because they do not believe she has enough support to govern anymore and end Brazil’s political crisis.
Ms Rousseff, 68, has lived in the presidential palace in Brasilia since her suspension, but has otherwise been stripped of all power and privileges.
Rousseff’s appearance came on the fourth day of a trial that has seen name-calling, shouting and a declaration by Senate President Renan Calheiros that “stupidity is limitless”. The final vote to impeach must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of senators, or 54 votes.
She also warned of the dangers she said the interim government of acting President Michel Temer posed. Although 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.
“We are one step away from a real coup d’etat”, the former leftist guerrilla said.
Rousseff calls the impeachment an attempt at a power-grab by her rivals, saying her government has always been the target of political sabotage. The result is expected to mirror the last vote when the Senate approved the impeachment process by 59 votes to 21.
Several hundred supporters demonstrated outside Congress, and cheered when she arrived.
Rousseff’s 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.
The drama has consumed Brazil, with the proceedings continuing even during the August 5-21 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Tape recordings of phone conversations that surfaced soon after her suspension indicated that some of those lawmakers who supported the attempt to remove her were motivated by a desire to impede a sprawling investigation she had helped initiate into political corruption.
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Spectators were crammed into the wings of the already-full Senate chamber during the speech, amid near total silence that was punctuated by brief rounds of applause by her supporters-despite warnings to remain quiet from Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who is presiding over the trial. If she’s found guilty in the impeachment proceedings, she’ll be removed from office.
