Brazilian lawmakers vote to strip ex-speaker of his seat

Only 10 congressmen voted in favor of Cunha during a lower house session that ended around midnight. At almost midnight Monday, lawmakers voted to expel Cunha, a move that could lead to a trial against him for his alleged role in a corruption scandal.

Cunha was once described as the “Brazilian Machiavelli”, a mastermind who had the rare skill of uniting the often-fractious and shifting alliances among the 20-plus political parties represented in the house, allegedly using the money from kickbacks to exert influence within the house when his political points ran low. The irony of this, of course, was than while Rousseff was accused of fudging numbers to make the economy seem stronger that it was, Cunha was being investigated for stealing, hiding the money, and lying about it to prosecutors.

He resigned as speaker in July amid swirling accusations of corruption linked to the huge state oil company Petrobras. But the removal vote was based only on charges that he lied about having secret banking accounts in Switzerland. He mainly displayed the cool and calculating persona he is known for, but occasionally his voice broke with emotion. “The onus of the proof is on the accuser”, he said.

The two men have always been party allies, but Cunha lashed out at Temer’s government Monday and accused it of wanting his ouster as a “trophy”. The vote against him was well clear of the simple majority of 257 needed in the 513-member chamber.

Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies meets to impeach the former President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016.

The new center-right administration brought an end to 13 years of leftist rule in Brazil. The process dragged on for nearly a year, the longest in Brazilian history.

Temer said that private investment is the anticdote to address Brazil’s sizeable budget deficit, as the country experiences its worst recession in four decades.

“On the other side of the street, in the government palace, there are people trembling”, said Maria do Rosario, a congresswoman with Ms Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT). Cunha, who abandoned Rousseff’s coalition a year ago, initiated the impeachment proceedings in December against the then-president for manipulating public accounts.

Cunha also attributed his fall to TV Globo, which he accused of carrying out a “pressure campaign to ensure that the congressmen were present here”.

He won prominence promoting a conservative social agenda that included a “Heterosexual Pride Day” and restrictions on abortion. “They’re making me pay the price for impeachment”, he said.