It is a coup by another name. With the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff from office on Thursday through a Senate impeachment vote, the Brazilian opposition has secured a rare political victory. The impeachment, approved with a 55-22 majority, brings to an end 13 years of rule by the Workers Party (PT). It also puts Ms. Rousseff’s political future in limbo as she now has to weather the impeachment trial, which could last up to six months and will determine if she may or may not regain the presidency. While the opposition politicians are understandably happy with the outcome, the impeachment is likely to deepen Brazil’s political crisis at a time when the country needs a stable administration to cope with the enormous challenges it faces, especially the current economic crisis, and chronic corruption. Certainly, Ms. Rousseff could have done more to lead her country out of this situation. Her government was ill-prepared to cope with the challenges of the global drop in commodity prices, which hit Brazil’s export-dependent economy particularly hard. Some of the measures she took, such as cutting public expenditure to control deficit, were counter-productive as they drove the PT’s traditional base, the working people, away from her. Besides, she could do little to check the pervasive corruption within the PT. The question of course is whether such political failures warrant an impeachment. Also, will the forcible removal of Ms. Rousseff help address any of the major problems Brazil faces now?
Those who support the impeachment, politicians and others, say it is a fight against corruption and Ms. Rousseff’s economic ineptitude. This line of reasoning has at least two problems. First, she has not been implicated in any corruption case. Ironically, Vice-President Michel Temer, who will now take over as acting President, has been named in a Petrobras bribery scandal. According to surveys, only 2 per cent of Brazilians support him for President, while 60 per cent favour his impeachment. Even the head of the Senate and the man who oversaw the impeachment vote, Renan Calheiros, is the subject of 11 criminal probes. Second, it is not clear what kind of changes the incoming acting President can bring about to rescue Brazil’s economy from a free fall and to stabilise its politics — given that he faces corruption charges and has no popular mandate. Though Ms. Rousseff is unpopular, the PT still commands respect among large sections of Brazil’s poor. If the PT continues its street protests against the impeachment, which have at times turned violent, that would make it that much more difficult for Mr. Temer to establish credible authority. The best, and the democratic, way out of this crisis would be to call fresh elections and let the people decide who should be the next President. He or she could start afresh on the basis of a new mandate. Unfortunately, Brazil’s political elite appear to be more interested in political manoeuvring than in addressing the real issues.
Keywords: Dilma Rousseff, Brazil
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