The Brazilian Senate has voted to hold an impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, who is accused of breaking the budget law.
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Senators voted 59-21 to approve a report calling for her removal after 16 hours of often-angry speeches.
President of Brazil’s Supreme Court, Ricardo Lewandowski, right, and Brazil’s Senate President Renan Calheiros during a discussion before the Senate votes on whether suspended President Dilma Rousseff should stand trial for impeachment.
Mrs Rousseff, the South American giant’s first female leader, is accused of financial irregularities that her critics say masked a looming economic crash before the 2014 elections, which she narrowly won.
A majority of at least 41 of 81 Senators needed to vote in favor of the trial for it to actually begin, which would probably take place in late August or early September.
The Senate move is likely to strengthen Temer’s hand as he strives to establish his legitimacy and stabilize Brazil politically.
The outcome was widely expected: The Senate already voted in May to impeach and remove Rousseff from office for up to 180 days while the trial was prepared. “Those who commit crimes must be held responsible for them”, said Senator Aecio Neves, one of Rousseff’s lead rivals.
Rousseff, a one-time Marxist guerilla, has likened the impeachment drive to a coup d’etat.
“Today is not a good day for our democracy”, said Senator Paulo Rocha.
“I’m the victim of a great injustice”, she said in May.
Acting President Michel Temer, who was elected as Ms. Rousseff’s vice president, would complete the more than two years remaining in her term if she is convicted.
Rousseff is a former leftist guerrilla who was jailed and tortured by the country’s military regime in the 1970s and followed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the second Workers’ Party president in 2011.
Her allies in the Workers’ Party have pointed out that numerous members of the Brazilian congress who have accused her are implicated in corruption cases themselves.
She says they were common practice under previous administrations.
They blamed Rousseff’s decisions for the current state of the Brazilian economy: Brazil is now facing a recession with no end in sight, and unemployment and inflation are on the rise. Three members have since resigned on corruption charges.
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She has also said efforts to depose her are part or a coup and a plot to obstruct an investigation involving state-run oil giant Petrobras that has seen the arrest of high-profile politicians and businessmen.
