Brazil’s Rousseff faces impeachment effort amid other woes

As of 11:25 the U.S. dollar was 0.27% stronger versus the Brazilian real at 3.8779. He said he was accepting the petition for impeachment with the hope that Brazil “could overcome its political and economic crisis, without any type of value judgment”. “If impeachment is the way to get it then it’ll be welcomed by the market, but there are so many twists and things that can happen between now and then”.

Impeachment proceedings have been opened against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

There is no word yet on when that vote may take place.

However, with Rousseff deeply unpopular and recession threatening to turn into depression, analysts expect the country to plunge into a prolonged period of political turmoil and government paralysis.

But there is no agreement about whether the fiscal maneuvers constitute an impeachable offense.

In 1992, then president Fernando Collor de Mello stepped down ahead of his impeachment on corruption charges. The financial accusations reflect a court decision that the Rousseff administration’s accounting practices in 2014 violated the law. Lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha said he had agreed to open proceedings.

The president was defiant Wednesday night. In a speech at the Planalto Palace, accompanied by 11 of her ministers, she said she was “outraged” by what she called “groundless” accusations against a “democratically elected” government. “Honestly, my friend, business is a catastrophe, a total disaster…If I don’t sell, I can’t buy” presents, she said. “There are no rumors that I have diverted public funds, I have no bank account overseas, and I didn’t hide any personal property from the public”.

When news came early on Wednesday that the committee members from the PT, Rousseff’s party, would be voting to recommend Cunha’s removal from the speakership, the stalemate broke down. Cunha has denied any wrongdoing.

The party’s deputy leader in the lower house, Henrique Fontana, said Cunha’s actions represent a break with democracy.

“This doesn’t bring anyone any happiness”, he said.

Carlos Pereira, of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation think tank, said Cunha had been under enormous pressure from the opposition to begin impeachment proceedings, but was now a “dead speaker walking” after waiting too long to make his move.

The defeated opposition candidate in last year’s presidential election, Senator Aecio Neves, has tweeted that he supports the impeachment request. “That needs to be done without the current government”, he told reporters.

Despite her re-election a year ago, Rousseff’s second term has been marred by a corruption scandal involving her own Workers’ Party that has sent her approval rating plummeting and provoked mass protests.

Dozens of politicians, together with Cunha, have been implicated in Brazil’s largest ever corruption investigation right into a worth-fixing and political kickback scheme on the state oil firm.