Snapshot of impeachment saga

WITH Sunday’s vote in the lower house of congress to authorise the senate to open an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s political crisis enters ever deeper crisis.

On December 2, controversial lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha formally opened the impeachment saga by accepting a petition from a group of lawyers.

They accused Rousseff of having illegally juggled accounts and taking loans in order to mask the depth of government shortfalls during her 2014 re-election.

Rousseff denied the charges and described the impeachment drive as a “coup”.

Against a backdrop of pro- and anti-Rousseff street protests, Brazil’s solicitor general Jose Eduardo Cardozo made final arguments in the president’s defence on April 4.

He told deputies on a special committee that the charges do not amount to impeachable offences.

Rousseff also enlisted her predecessor and mentor, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, to spearhead the intense lobbying campaign for votes in the lower house.

In the end, Rousseff’s last-ditch fight turned into a desperate, partisan struggle where she accused her vice-president, Michel Temer, and Cunha of conspiring against her.

Rousseff had hoped to kill impeachment in the lower house. Now that she has lost that vote, the case goes to the senate.

The senate will meet, probably next month, to vote whether a trial should open.

A simple majority vote will be enough for Rousseff to have to step down for an 180-day period while the trial gets under way. — AFP