The scale of her defeat on Thursday showed the opposition already
has the support it needs to reach a two-thirds majority required to
convict Rousseff and remove her definitively from office.
Brazil's Rousseff set to bow out after Senate votes to put her on trial(Reuters)
Brazil's Senate voted on Thursday to put leftist President Dilma Rousseff
on trial in a historic decision brought on by a deep recession and a
corruption scandal that will now confront her successor, Vice President Michel Temer.
With
Rousseff to be suspended during the Senate trial for allegedly breaking
budget rules, the centrist Temer will take the helm of a country that
again finds itself mired in political and economic volatility after a
recent decade of prosperity.
The 55-22 vote ends
more than 13 years of rule by the left-wing Workers Party, which rose
from Brazil's labor movement and helped pull millions of people out of
poverty before seeing many of its leaders tainted by corruption
investigations.
Fireworks rang out in cities
across Brazil after the vote at the end of a 20-hour session in the
Senate. Police briefly clashed with pro-Rousseff demonstrators in
Brasilia during the vote, but the country was calm early Thursday, with
scattered celebrants in São Paulo and other cities draping themselves in
Brazil's green, yellow and blue flag.
Rousseff, a
68-year-old economist and former member of a Marxist guerrilla group
who was the country's first woman president, is unlikely to be acquitted
in a trial that could last as long as six months.
The
scale of her defeat on Thursday showed the opposition already has the
support it needs to reach a two-thirds majority required to convict
Rousseff and remove her definitively from office.
"It is a bitter though necessary medicine," opposition Senator Jose Serra, tipped to become foreign minister under Temer, said during the marathon debate. "Having the Rousseff government continue would be a bigger tragedy. Brazil's situation would be unbearable."
Early
Thursday, a Temer aide said the incoming government would announce a
series of austerity measures to help reduce a massive budget deficit.
Temer
plans to appoint Henrique Mereilles, a former central bank president
and banking executive who is popular with foreign investors, as finance
minister after taking office during the day, added the adviser.
Senate
Speaker Renan Calheiros said Rousseff would be formally notified of her
suspension on Thursday morning, after which she would leave Brasilia's
Planalto presidential palace. As suspended head of state, she can
continue to live in her official residence, have a staff and use an Air
Force plane.
Rousseff, who has denied any
wrongdoing and has called the impeachment process a "coup," was expected
to make a brief statement, aides said. She would later address a rally
of supporters accompanied by her mentor, Workers Party founder and
former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Rousseff
dismissed her cabinet, including the sports minister, who is in final
preparations for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August, Brazil's
Official Gazette showed. The central bank governor, who has ministerial
rank, was not included in the decree.
Temer, 75, a
constitutional scholar who spent decades in Brazil's Congress, now
faces the challenge of restoring economic growth and calm at a time when
Brazilians, increasingly polarized, are questioning whether their
institutions can deliver on his promise of stability.
'CRISIS TO CRISIS'
In
addition to the gaping deficit, equal to more than 10 percent of its
annual economic output, Brazil is suffering from rising unemployment,
plummeting investment and a projected economic contraction of more than 3
percent this year.
"Only major reforms can keep Brazil from moving from crisis to crisis,"
says Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca, an economist and author in São Paulo
who has written extensively about the country's socioeconomic problems.
But
those changes, including an overhaul of pension, tax and labor laws and
a political reform to streamline fragmented parties in a mercenary
Congress, could remain elusive at a time of turmoil.
While
opposition supporters celebrated in the central Paulista Avenue of
Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, many Brazilians are concerned that the
end of Workers Party rule could bring back bad times for the poor, who
have made great strides in the last decade.
And many Brazilians are unsure whether a new government will make much difference in the short term.
Maria Carmo, a 48-year-old hair stylist at a shop in central Brasilia, expressed serious doubts.
"I
don't see anyone who has the capacity the lead us out of this
complicated mess we're in - all the politicians are under
investigation," said Carmo. "This crisis impacts everyone - poor, middle class, and I would even argue the rich given all the turbulence."
WILD CARDS
Rousseff's government made a last-ditch effort to annul her impeachment but it was rejected by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
By
dismissing her cabinet, Rousseff sought to frustrate a smooth
transition for Temer. She views him as a traitor because of his efforts,
as leader of the party that was her main ally in Congress, to unravel
that coalition and force party colleagues to resign from government
posts.
Temer plans to swear in new ministers on
Thursday afternoon and is promising pro-market policies to bring the
deficit under control, rein in inflation and get the economy growing
again.
Brazilian markets have for weeks rallied as
investors welcomed the likely dismissal of a president they believe
crippled the economy, but were largely unchanged on Wednesday.
Wild
cards remain for Temer himself, including still-pending investigations
by an electoral court into financing for his and Rousseff's 2014
re-election campaign.
Then there is the
far-reaching kickback probe around state-run oil company Petroleo
Brasileiro SA, which has ensnared dozens of corporate and political
chieftains and fueled the discontent that led to Rousseff's impeachment.
Rousseff,
energy minister and chief of staff to her predecessor before taking
office in 2011, was chairwoman of Petrobras at the time when much of the
graft occurred.
She has not been accused of
corruption, but the scandal at Petrobras encouraged opposition lawmakers
to oust her for disguising the size of the government's budget deficit
in the lead-up to her re-election.
Temer has not
been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal either, but some of his allies
and party colleagues have. Prosecutors say they are far from finished
with the probe.
Though many lawmakers have
expressed their desire to join forces and get on with a recovery upon
Rousseff's exit, dozens of parties are jockeying for power in the Temer
government and angling to position themselves for new elections in 2018.
Temer
has indicated he will not run for president in 2018. A recent survey
from polling group Datafolha showed just 1 percent of those surveyed
would vote for him, and other polls show around 60 percent of Brazilians
want him impeached too.
"Temer may have a honeymoon, but let's not forget this was a shotgun wedding," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. "Reforms aren't easy at the best of times and these are for sure not the easiest."
With
the political crisis coming just as Brazil prepares for the August
Olympics, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee,
said in a statement on Thursday:
"There is strong support for the Olympic Games in Brazil and we look forward to working with the new government."
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