This was published 8 years ago
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff makes final survival bid before impeachment vote
By Lia Timson
- 'Toying with democracy': Effort to impeach Brazil's president thrown into chaos
- Rio Olympics: What now?
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls on Brazilians to protest
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's aides have reportedly packed her papers and cleared presidential palace office shelves in anticipation of a yes vote for her impeachment in the Senate on Wednesday.
But the embattled president has not given up, taking one final opportunity on Tuesday to overturn a chaotic process to remove her from office that has paralysed the country.
The government's top lawyer, Eduardo Cardozo, asked the Supreme Court on the president's behalf to annul impeachment proceedings, arguing they were politically motivated and had no legal basis.
Speaking to a conference full of women supporters, Brazil's first female president vowed to keep fighting efforts from the right to remove her on charges of breaking budget laws. A yes vote would officially start a trial that could last up to 180 days and put Michel Temer, her vice-president and one of her main rivals, in charge.
"I will not resign, that never crossed my mind," Ms Rousseff said.
If Ms Rousseff were convicted and removed definitively, Mr Temer would stay in the post until elections in 2018.
The political crisis has erupted at a time when Brazil had planned to be shining on the world stage, as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Earlier on Tuesday, the acting speaker of the lower house of Congress, Waldir Maranhao, withdrew his controversial decision to annul last month's impeachment vote in the chamber. That meant Cardozo's appeal to the top court may be the president's best hope of stopping the process from moving forward.
Maranhao's bizarre move on Monday was heavily ridiculed in the country with hundreds of internet memes created to portray him as annulling history.
"Waldir Maranhao issues new edict: cancels Germany's World Cup 7-1 victory over Brazil. Will notify FIFA today. New game scheduled for Wednesday", said one, touching a sore national wound.
Another said Maranhao had annulled all marriages of the last 50 years and "everyone is now single". While a satirical website published a whole article titled: "After barring impeachment, interim house speaker annuls man's trip to the moon in 1969."
With the prospect looming of an end to 13 years of rule by Ms Rousseff's leftist Workers Party (PT), anti-impeachment protesters blocked roads in Sao Paulo, Brasilia and other cities, snarling morning traffic.
The party and labour unions have called for a national strike to resist what they and Ms Rousseff call a "coup" against democracy.
The secretary general of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro, has questioned the legality of the impeachment process. He said it would seek the legal opinion of the Inter-American Human Rights Court.
- with Reuters