Brazil’s President Loses Latest Fight Over Austerity

Brazil’s top electoral authority has ruled there are grounds to investigate irregularities in President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election campaign previous year.

Meanwhile the Congress yesterday postponed for a fourth time voting on whether to overrule Rousseff’s vetoes of two spending bills in a defeat for her government as it scrambles for support to rebalance overdrawn public accounts.

Brazil is experiencing its worst economic recession in 25 years, with Rousseff also fighting off charges that her government manipulated the budget to increase public spending ahead of her 2014 reelection.

The court formally is deciding if it will approve its earlier report that says Rousseff broke Brazil’s finance law.

That ruling will not immediately lead to sanctions, instead opening the door to a legal and political battle that in theory could result in Rousseff’s narrow 2014 victory being declared invalid – and new elections being organised.

The speaker has been questioned about his activities since mid-year when the Supreme Court listed him as one of 50 politicians with immunity being investigated in connection with a massive corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras.

The TSE investigation was requested by the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB), whose leader, Mr Aecio Neves, narrowly lost to Ms Rousseff last October.

This is the latest in a series of setbacks for Ms Rousseff.

Opposition lawmakers at the court clapped and hugged each other after the ruling, saying the decision was the beginning of the end for the Rousseff administration.

It is the first time the electoral body has opened such proceedings against a sitting president, according to the Superior Electoral Court.

It is seeking to determine whether President Rousseff and Vice-President Michel Temer abused their power while in office to run the campaign and whether illegal money was used as funding.

“Even if Congress reprimanded her, that doesn’t imply that there will be an impeachment”, Mohallem told AFP.

Further muddying the waters, her nemesis, Cunha, is himself fighting allegations that he took a $5 million bribe in the Petrobras scheme and is hiding money in Swiss bank accounts.