A dramatic downfall

Sep 07, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

It wasn’t supposed to happen in the world’s fifth largest country, but it did.
Yes, Brazil, our neighbour to the South impeached Dilma Rousseff, its first female President on September 1, 2016. The impeachment put an end to 13 years in power of the left-wing Workers Party. It brought to power, the centre-right Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) led by Michel Temer who was officially sworn in as president.
The impeachment of Ms. Rousseff has caused a rift between Brazil and the three left-wing South American governments of Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, which have not only criticized the impeachment process but also recalled their ambassadors.
Amidst anti-government demonstrations in many cities including Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio, a defiant Dilma Rousseff told her supporters that the process is flawed and she is innocent and would appeal the Brazilian Senate’s decision to illegally remove her from office.
Her supporters claimed that her removal was illegal and could threaten the nation’s democracy, whereas, her rivals have contended that she was a dictator.
The impeachment process began in 2015 after the Brazilian Supreme Court rejected her appeal to be reinstated as President. Although the impeachment hovered over the Rio Olympics, the games went on without any problems, political or otherwise.
Ever since she returned to power in 2014, the leftist leader had constantly fought off efforts from her right-wing rivals on allegations of dereliction of duties, administrative misconduct and violation of the budget laws and the Fiscal responsibility Law, cited in articles 85 and 36 respectively, of the Brazilian Constitution.
Ms. Rousseff was accused of issuing budget decrees on spending and moving funds from the budgets to plug deficit holes in popular social programmes to boost her re-election chances in 2014—all of which her opponents claimed were illegal under Brazilian law.
Beyond the violations of the budget laws, Ms. Rousseff and her government were implicated in corruption allegations of the government-owned oil company, Petrobras. It was reported that hundreds of millions of dollars were siphoned from Petrobras and placed into private offshore accounts.
However, there was no evidence that Ms. Rousseff herself was involved in the Petrobras scandal. And although scholars have found that her actions on budgetary spending did not amount to criminality or impeachment, yet she was suspended from the Presidency in May 2016 after the Brazilian Senate voted to go ahead with the impeachment process against her.
The scholars have argued that what she did was to reallocate budgetary funds to social programmes and this was done by other presidents, and no criminal or impeachment charges were levelled against them.
Ms. Rousseff, who had never lost an election since coming to power in 2010, was praised for expanding poverty relief programmes which benefited almost 14 million poor Brazilians throughout the country. However, by mid-2015, her support among the public and in Congress diminished as a result of a sharp decline in the economy.
From then on, it was downhill for Ms. Rousseff, as her government was rocked by a massive bribery scandal that paralyzed the country. Thousands flocked to the streets all across the country to protest the economic hardships and called for the removal of President Rousseff.
Her impeachment marks a dramatic downfall of a woman who was once one of the world’s most popular politicians with approval ratings of 85%. But her struggles with her right-wing rivals in Congress and a dire economic and financial climate eroded her popularity and led to a loss of confidence among the people.
Her impeachment was destined because some of the country’s political elites, including the right-wing Vice President Michel Temer could not bear her being the president of Brazil for a second term. Ms. Rousseff’s removal from office less than halfway through her mandate could have broader implications for Brazil. While she is not the first Brazilian president to be impeached, her impeachment reinforced the impression that the political class seems to be uncomfortable with democracy. The question is being asked whether Brazil could eventually return to authoritarian military dictatorship; a state of affairs which ended a little more than three decades ago.

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