Brazil’s impeachment plot thickens; speculations whether key ally will abandon President Roussef

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) suspended the special Committee that was formed on Monday to recommend to Congress whether to proceed with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

A Supreme Court decision Tuesday temporarily suspended all proceedings relating to impeachment bid; opposition deputies responded by vowing to block all votes until the court made its decision.

Pro-Rousseff lawmakers say that speaker Eduardo Cunha’s choice to carry the vote to determine the commission’s members in secret was unconstitutional.

Temer said Rousseff had no right to distrust him and his party which has provided the support she needed to govern and, particularly, the votes to push fiscal austerity measures through Congress to relieve a fiscal crunch.

If an impeachment committee finds against Rousseff, the process will go to a full vote on the house floor, where the opposition needs two-thirds of the votes to begin a 180-day impeachment trial in the Senate.

Many Brazilians want to see Rousseff go because they blame her for the worst recession in 25 years, which is being deepened by concern over the country’s political future.

Cunha, from the PMDB’s openly anti-Rousseff wing, is the architect of the impeachment drive and also oversaw the controversial session Tuesday to form the commission. The turmoil is stirring passions across the South American country of 204 million people, where Rousseff’s Workers’ Party has been in power since 2003 with the help of its often uncomfortable coalition partner, the centrist PMDB. Cunha, who himself faces allegations of corruption, started the impeachment proceedings last week based mostly on an opposition accusation in that the president violated finances laws with accounting tricks employed by her authorities to permit ramped up spending throughout her re-election marketing crusade last yr. …

Political uncertainty is also adding to the economic mess, with GDP down 4.5 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, and the national currency down a third against the dollar this year.

But in an illustration of the nearly surreal level of corruption eating away at Brazil s elite, Cunha faces criminal corruption charges that he took millions of dollars in bribes and hid money in Swiss bank accounts.

The conservative politician says the charges are politically motivated and has fought fiercely to retain his post.

On Wednesday, an ethics committee yet again postponed a decision on whether to open an enquiry into Cunha’s activities, which could then lead to him being forced out.

“The PMDB is moving its players forward, one by one”, said one senior PMDB official who asked not to be named. On Tuesday, 16 of the country’s 27 state governors declared that the impeachment case lacked constitutional foundation.

 On Tuesday, a letter from the vice-president Michel Temer to President Rousseff was published in several newspapers in which he complained of being given only a “decorative” role.

For the Wall Street Journal Rogerio Jelmayer reports on the suspension of proceedings against President Rousseff.