Corruption probe clouds survival of transition leader

BRASILIA: Corruption allegations implicating Brazilian President Michel Temer and his party are casting doubt on his ability to remain in office and causing the first cracks in his coalition amid growing calls for early elections.

Allegations that Temer and members of his inner circle solicited illegal funds for his 2014 vice presidential campaign threaten to undermine a solid majority in Congress that put him in office by impeaching leftist Dilma Rousseff in August.

Losing that majority would dismantle the two goals Temer set himself as caretaker president through 2018: to restore fiscal discipline and revive Brazil’s flailing economy.

Key allies are still with Temer, for now.

But there are signs some are ready to break ranks, and others are divided over getting burned by association with his deeply unpopular government.

Senator Ronaldo Caiado, whose Democrats Party is one of the strongest backers of Temer’s austerity measures before Congress, said this week the president lacked enough support in the country for the measures and should consider stepping down to allow elections next year.

In the centrist PSDB party, which fully backs Temer’s fiscal reform programme as it eyes its own presidential bid in 2018, party leader Aecio Neves reconfirmed his support for Temer this week, as long as he sticks to the austerity agenda.

Temer is trying to strengthen his base by offering the PSDB, Brazil’s third-largest party, a fourth Cabinet post, the ministry in charge of relations with Congress.

Some coalition allies warned they may drop their support for Temer if allegations emerging from the investigation into state-run oil company Petrobras continue to involve the president. That is likely, given that the testimony of another 75 executives on Odebrecht’s massive role in Brazil’s biggestever graft scheme has come to light.

Odebrecht executives have already testified that the engineering firm illegally funded Temer’s 2014 vice presidential campaign. Temer has denied accepting illegal donations. — Reuters