Brazil graft probe sparks hopes of change, fears of chaos

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) - For some in Brazil, the decision by a Supreme Court judge to place many top politicians under investigation for suspected corruption, including leading contenders in next year’s presidential race, clears the way for a new era in politics.

The sweeping probe ordered by Justice Luiz Edson Fachin encompassed all the likely presidential candidates from Brazil’s main political parties, including left-leaning former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who is leading in the polls.

“A chance for a clean start,” O Globo, an influential Rio de Janeiro daily, said on Wednesday’s front page.

But many familiar with the workings of Brazil’s multiparty system and its sluggish courts said the investigation may bring little beyond more instability - especially if an untested maverick steps in to fill the political void.

“It’s good we have institutions that are battling corruption but this opens up a gaping leadership vacuum that for now creates further instability,” said Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at Tendencias, a consultancy in São Paulo.

The massive investigation that opened three years ago into kickbacks at the state run oil company Petrobras has already shaken Brazil’s political establishment. It contributed to the impeachment of leftist President Dilma Rousseff last year, and has dogged the new government of President Michel Temer.

Yet the investigation ordered by Fachin on Tuesday, based on plea bargain testimony by employees of engineering company Odebrecht, marked a major escalation of the political fallout.

Eight government ministers and 12 state governors were swept up in the probe, as well as dozens of sitting lawmakers - including the speakers of both houses of Congress - and four former presidents.