|
Brazil leader’s coalition collapses as impeachment looms
[BDLIVE.CO.ZA] Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s chances of surviving impeachment nosedived on Tuesday when her ruling coalition’s main partner jumped ship and went into opposition.The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), the country’s largest party, voted to end its alliance with Ms Rousseff’s leftist Workers’ Party, or PT, immediately. Ms Rousseff canceled a trip to a nuclear security summit in Washington later on Tuesday amid the political crisis. Senator Romero Juca, the party vice-president, made the "historic" announcement after a rapid meeting on Tuesday. The meeting, broadcast live on national television, was the culmination of a long divorce with Ms Rousseff, leaving Brazil’s first female president grasping at straws as she tries to stay in power. The vote and announcement took no more than three minutes and was accompanied by singing of the national anthem and shouts of "PT out!" The split plunges Ms Rousseff’s government into crisis mode and, more seriously, greatly reduces her chances of mustering the one third of votes in the lower house of Congress that she needs to defeat a first impeachment vote expected in April. "If you look at the numbers, that’s basically it," said Everaldo Moraes, a political science professor at Brasilia National University. If the lower house votes in favor, an impeachment trial would start in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote would force Ms Rousseff from office. Posted by: Fred 2016-03-30 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=450689 |