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Brazil’s biggest party abandons president, quits coalition Poll shows Brazil President Rousseff with 10 pct approval
(about 17 hours later)
SAO PAULO — Brazil’s largest party abandoned President Dilma Rousseff’s governing coalition Tuesday, making it tougher for her to survive mounting pressure in Congress for her impeachment. RIO DE JANEIRO — Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is looking to shore up the support of the parties that make up her governing coalition, news reports said Wednesday, a day after the country’s largest party decamped in a move that will make it harder for Rousseff to fight impeachment proceedings against her.
The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, known as the PMDB, said after a meeting that six Cabinet ministers belonging to the party as well as some 600 federal government employees who are members must step down. The announcement was made after more than 100 lawmakers approved the decision, according to the press office of Romero Juca, an influential senator. Leaders of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, known as the PMDB, on Tuesday announced that party members would be immediately leaving their six Cabinet posts, as well as some 600 federal government jobs.
“As of today in this historical meeting for the PMDB, the party withdraws from the base of the government of President Dilma Rousseff and no one in the country is authorized to hold any federal position in name of the PMDB,” Juca said to loud cheers and applause after the decision was approved. But it appeared Wednesday that at least three of the party’s Cabinet ministers planned on staying in Rousseff’s government. O Estado de S. Paulo daily reported Health Minister Marcelo Castro and Science and Technology Minister Celso Pansera wanted to cut a deal that would allow them to remain in the government, while Agriculture Minister Katia Abreu could sever her ties with Democratic Alliance in order to remain.
The session ended with chants calling for the end of Rousseff’s Worker’s Party and for Vice President Michel Temer to become Brazil’s president. Temer, who is the leader of the Democratic Movement, would assume the presidency if Rousseff was impeached for breaking fiscal laws. Rousseff was said to be planning to use the posts vacated by the Democratic Alliance to strengthen her support from the six parties that remain in the governing base, along with her left-leaning Workers’ Party.
The break increases the chance that Rousseff, whose popularity has plunged amid Brazil’s worst recession in decades and corruption scandals, will be impeached in the coming months. Rousseff needs to secure at least 172 out of 513 votes in the lower house of Congress to halt impeachment proceedings against her over allegations she violated fiscal rules. A vote on the matter is expected around mid-April, and without the PMDB’s 69 votes, Rousseff’s chances of surviving the vote appeared diminished.
“The exit of the PMDB, President Dilma’s main ally, represents the end of the ruling coalition and greatly increases the chances of her impeachment, for her party is now a minority in Congress,” said Carlos Pereira, a professor at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a top Brazilian university. Speaking at an event for the government’s public housing scheme, Rousseff again lashed out at the impeachment process as an attempted “coup” against her, adding she hadn’t committed any crime that would warrant her ousting.
“PMDB’s exit will definitely encourage smaller parties to follow its example and leave the coalition, forcing Dilma’s government into a situation of political isolation,” he added. “What we’re discussing is impeachment without responsibility for a crime, and without responsibility for a crime, that’s a coup,” she said to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters who chanted: “There won’t be a coup.”
Brazilians have been staging wide protests demanding the president’s impeachment and protesting the sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras that has been moving closer to Rousseff’s inner circle. Rousseff, a former chairwoman of Petrobras’ board, has not been implicated in the unfolding scandal at the oil company, which prosecutors say is the largest corruption scheme ever uncovered in Brazil. Rousseff has seen her popularity plummet amid the worst recession in decades and a sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras that has been moving closer to her inner circle. Rousseff, a former chairwoman of Petrobras’ board, has not been implicated in the unfolding scandal at the oil company that prosecutors call the largest corruption scheme ever uncovered in Brazil.
Rousseff backers say impeachment is a power grab by opponents who themselves have been sullied by the probe into kickbacks and bribery at Petrobras. A new opinion poll released Wednesday suggested just 10 percent of Brazilians have a favorable opinion of Rousseff. That’s just slightly up from the single-digit approval ratings Rousseff faced last year, but still extremely low. The survey, by the Ibope polling agency, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. It was conducted from March 17-20, with 2,002 people interviewed nationwide.
“The law and the constitution foresee that to remove the president there must be a fiscal crime and there isn’t one,” said Afonso Florence, a leader in the governing Workers Party. Public disgust with politicians reaches far beyond Rousseff. Vice President Michel Temer, who is first in line to assume the presidency in case of impeachment, has been sullied by accusations he took part in the Petrobras corruption scheme, as have the two other figures in line to succeed Rousseff — the head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, and the lower house, Eduardo Cunha. All three are with the Democratic Alliance and all deny any wrongdoing.
“That is why impeachment is a coup, but not only a coup against the president, but also against democratic legality.” Also on Wednesday, the lower house’s ethics committee met to discuss the case against Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who stands accused of lying to a parliamentary investigatory committee and risks being stripped of his mandate. Cunha told the committee he didn’t have foreign bank accounts but Swiss documents later emerged linking him to accounts that prosecutors allege held money from Petrobras kickbacks.
The embattled leader will now search for new allies and will try to form a new government before the end of the week, Rousseff’s chief of staff, Jaques Wagner, told reporters. On Tuesday, the judge in the Petrobras case, Sergio Moro, acknowledged he “may have erred” in making public tapped phone recordings of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, including a conversation with Rousseff. Moro released the recordings hours after Silva was appointed Rousseff’s chief of staff earlier this month, prompting allegations of partisanship from the magistrate’s supporters and critics alike.
“The decision by the Democratic Movement party comes at a good time because it offers the president an opportunity to reconsolidate her government,” Wagner said. “In other words, to start a new government.” Silva’s appointment would have made it more difficult for Moro to look into allegations he may have benefited from the Petrobras scheme because Brazilian law requires the Supreme Court to authorize any investigation into Cabinet ministers. A justice on the top court prevented Silva from assuming the post.
A recent poll by the respected Datafolha agency says 68 percent of people surveyed want to see lawmakers vote to impeach Rousseff, but only 11 percent believe they would be better off under Temer. In his written response to the Supreme Court, Judge Moro asked for “respectful apologies” for having made the recordings public, adding that he hadn’t intended to “cause polemics or conflicts.”
Temer has been sullied by accusations he took part in the Petrobras corruption scheme as have the two other figures in line to succeed Rousseff — the heads of the lower house and the Senate, both of whom are also Democratic Movement members. All three deny any wrongdoing.
The leak last week of spreadsheets listing payments to nearly 300 politicians representing dozens of parties further inflamed widespread disgust with Brazil’s entire political class. The spreadsheets were seized in the Petrobras case from the home of a top executive at one of Brazil’s biggest companies and list politicians and their code names alongside monetary figures. Authorities are still investigating whether the sums constituted illicit payouts or were legal campaign donations.
David Fleischer, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Brasilia, said the Democratic Movement’s decision to leave the coalition will increase the number of anti-Rousseff congressmen on the impeachment committee in the lower house of Congress.
“Impeachment has become irreversible,” Fleischer said. “The president has no other way out.”
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Associated Press writer Stan Lehman reported this story in Sao Paulo and AP writer Luis Andres Henao reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.