March 29, 2016 10:24
pm
Rousseff
blow as coalition partner quits
Joe Leahy in São
Paulo
President Dilma
Rousseff’s biggest coalition partner, the centrist Brazilian
Democratic Movement party, on Tuesday abandoned her government,
increasing the odds that the leader of Latin America’s largest
country will be impeached.
The decision by the
party, a loose grouping of regionalist politicians, catapults to the
fore of national politics Ms Rousseff’s vice-president and PMDB
leader Michel Temer, who will take over the presidency if she is
impeached, a process that could start as early as next month.
“The PMDB is the
biggest party in the house, it controls the lower house and the
senate,” PMDB lawmaker Hugo Motta told the FT after the decision at
a meeting in Brasília. “This decision carries a lot of weight in
the outcome of the impeachment. Even though the process also depends
on other parties, this is a very strong signal.”
Ms Rousseff and her
leftist Workers’ party need only one-third of the 513-seat lower
house plus one seat to oppose or abstain from an impeachment vote for
her to remain in power.
But the withdrawal
of the PMDB is expected to be followed by that of other smaller
centrist parties in the ruling coalition, which could leave her short
of the numbers needed to avert impeachment.
Only 15 months into
her second four-year term, Ms Rousseff is being hampered by what is
expected to be Brazil’s worst economic downturn in more than a
century and a sprawling corruption investigation into state-owned oil
company Petrobras.
Mr Temer, who did
not participate in Tuesday’s PMDB meeting, has already outlined a
market-friendly policy platform that investors hope will revive the
economy if he assumes power.
The PMDB also faces
serious challenges, however, including the implication of several of
its leaders in the Petrobras case, in which politicians are accused
of collaborating with company executives and contractors in exchange
for bribes and kickbacks.
Lula attempts to
save Rousseff from impeachment threat
Brazil’s former
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Dilma Rousseff
raise their arms together to celebrate the swearing-in of Silva as
the newly-appointed chief of staff, at the Planalto presidential
palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, March 17, 2016. Rousseff
insisted Silva would help put the troubled country back on track and
denounced attempts to oust her. Supporter on the right is holding a
flag that represents Brazil's governing party. (AP Photo/Eraldo
Peres)
Brazil’s former
leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva plans to help cobble together an
eleventh-hour coalition large enough to save President Rousseff from
a looming impeachment process.
Mr Temer, a
75-year-old constitutional lawyer, is expected to appoint
market-friendly “technicians” to the important economic posts in
any eventual government.
However, the leader
of the PT in the lower house of congress, Afonso Florence, said the
aim of the PMDB was to seize power so that it could protect its
members from corruption charges. He said not all of the party’s
members had attended Tuesday’s meeting, a sign that some might
stick with the government.
“Led by Michel
Temer, this attempt at impeachment takes on even more the
connotations of a coup,” Mr Florence said.
The impeachment
process, which is based on allegations that Ms Rousseff employed
accounting tricks to disguise a budget deficit in 2014, the year of
her re-election, could start as early as next month if two-thirds of
the lower house supports the motion in a vote in a plenary session.
It would then go to
the senate for deliberation for up to six months, during which time
Ms Rousseff would be suspended from her position and Mr Temer would
be acting president.
Led by Michel Temer,
this attempt at impeachment takes on even more the connotations of a
coup
- Afonso Florence,
leader of PT in lower house
Most analysts
believe that if the lower house supports the motion, the senate will
follow suit, placing enormous pressure on Ms Rousseff to resign
rather than wait to be forced out.
However, she has
repeatedly said she would refuse to renounce her post, describing the
impeachment as a coup against a lawfully elected president.
“Why do they ask
me to renounce? Because I’m a woman, fragile? I’m not fragile,
that’s not what my life has been. Do you know why they want me to
resign? To avoid the incredible stigma of removing an elected
president in a way that is unjustified, criminal and illegal,” Ms
Rousseff said last week.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário