Brazilians back to streets in impeachment row
Rousseff looks to shore up support in reduced coalition
BRASÍLIA, March 31, (Agencies): Supporters of embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff were to hit the streets in rallies across the country Thursday aimed at pressuring Congress ahead of an impeachment vote.
Pro-government organizations and the leftist Workers’ Party called protests in 31 cities, with the main one in the capital Brasilia, headed by controversial former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula, who founded the ruling Workers’ Party and remains a heavyweight figure on the left, called for supporters to hit the streets on his Facebook page.
On Wednesday, Rousseff branded the attempt to bring her down as based on trumped-up charges and amounting to “a coup.”
She has been left dangerously isolated after the main coalition partner for her Workers’ Party, the PMDB, announced Tuesday that it was pulling out and would support impeachment.
Rousseff is also dealing with the deep- est recession in a generation and fallout from a huge corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras that has snared a cross-section of the country’s elite — including Lula.
An Ibope poll showed approval for Rousseff’s government remains around record lows of 10 percent, while her personal approval rating was 14 percent.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern, telling O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that “any political instability in Brazil is a reason for worry.”
Rousseff faces impeachment over allegedly illegal budgetary manipulations to cover the extent of Brazil’s recession during her re-election campaign in 2014.
The potentially lengthy process is under way in a preliminary commission and the lower house of Congress could vote as early as mid-April on whether to send the case to the Senate for full trial.
To impeach Rousseff, 342 out of 513 deputies, or two thirds, must vote in favor. If Rousseff managed to get more than 171 votes she would defeat the measure, but it could also fail through abstentions or deputies not attending.
Until only recently Rousseff seemed likely to narrowly prevail, despite her unpopularity and the intense hostility of opponents in the increasingly divided country.
With the PMDB’s exit, the math gets far dicier, analysts say.
“The likelihood of impeachment has greatly increased,” said political analyst Michael Freitas Mohallem of the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro.
Meanwhile, Rousseff looked to shore up the support of parties still in her governing coalition after Brazil’s biggest quit the bloc.
A day after the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party announced that its members would be immediately giving up their six Cabinet posts and some 600 federal government jobs, it appeared at least three of its Cabinet ministers planned to stay in Rousseff’s government.
The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo said Health Minister Marcelo Castro and Science and Technology Minister Celso Pansera wanted to work out a deal that would let them remain in the Cabinet, while Agriculture Minister Katia Abreu might sever her ties with the Democratic Movement.
Rousseff was said to be planning to use posts vacated by the Democratic Movement to strengthen her support from the six parties that remain in the governing coalition with her left-leaning Workers’ Party.
She needs to secure at least 172 of the 513 votes in the lower house of Congress to halt impeachment proceedings against her over allegations her administration violated fiscal rules.
A vote on the matter is expected around mid-April, and without the Democratic Movement’s 69 votes, Rousseff’s chances of surviving the vote appear diminished.