Brazil's Rousseff suspended as Sete backs impeachment trial
Brasilia, May 12: The Brazilian Sete on Thursday voted for an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, suspending her from office. Rousseff will be suspended until the Sete submits the case to a fil trial, which will happen in up to 180 days. Vice President Michel Temer will take over in the period, Xinhua news agency reported.
In the trial, it will take a two-thirds majority to remove Rousseff from the presidency permanently. Alysts said this may not be difficult as the opposition maged to get two-thirds in the first voting. Temer, whose Brazilian Democratic Movement Party recently left the ruling coalition, is seen as a spearhead in the impeachment of Rousseff.
The media reported that Temer has a new Cabinet prepared and intends to make significant changes, shifting the direction of the administration. The president and vice president have yet to make any public statements on the latest developments. The Sete gave the go-ahead to the impeachment trial by 55-22 in the early hours of Thursday after over 20 hours of heated discussion. Different from the session in the house, the Sete session gave supporters a chance to defend the president before the vote.
Former president Ferndo Collor de Mello, himself impeached by the sete in 1992, said that he feels the country has “regressed politically”, CNN reported. His colleague Armando Monteiro said the impeachment was politically motivated and would set a dangerous precedence. “We will, indeed, be promoting a rupture in the tion’s institutiol order.”
Rousseff, who was first sworn into office in January 2011 and started a second term in 2015, has called the steps to remove her a “coup”. The opposition said the impeachment was necessary. Setor Magno Malta of the Party of the Republic compared the impeachment to a surgical operation. “Brazil today (Thursday) is like a diabetic, feverish body, with a leg compromised by gangrene, ready to be amputated. And the logic is this: if we amputate the leg, we save the body; by not amputating the leg, we compromise the entire body,” he said.
Setor Angela Portela from the ruling Workers’ Party said the impeachment was not logical as it was based on alleged mistakes made in last year’s accounts. She also warned about the social impact. “We will be removing a victorious government proposal and a generous project to redesign our society, a project which foresees inclusion, protection of minorities, reduction of inequalities and economic growth with justice,” she said.
“It is not fair to do what they are doing to the Brazilian democracy. They are not taking down President Dilma. They are taking down popular vote,” said Joao Via, another setor of the Workers’ Party. Rousseff made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to stop proceedings, but the move was rejected. Her suspension brings an end to 13 years of the rule of her party. His colleague Armando Monteiro said the impeachment was politically motivated and would set a dangerous precedence. “We will, indeed, be promoting a rupture in the tion’s institutiol order.” Setor Waldemir Moka told the upper house during the motion that if the impeachment trial was successful, the future president would assume a government with a 250 billion Brazilian real debt ($72 billion) according to conservative projections, with the possibility of being up to 600 billion real ($174 billion). (IANS)
