Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff pledged on Wednesday to form a government of national unity if she survives an impeachment vote in Congress this weekend, but the odds against her lengthened as even remaining allies wavered in their support.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff looks on during a ceremony for a
contract renewal between the Special Secretariat of Ports and Container
Terminal of Paranagua, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April
13, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff looks on during a ceremony for a
contract renewal between the Special Secretariat of Ports and Container
Terminal of Paranagua, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April
13, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (C) gestures during a ceremony for a
contract renewal between the Special Secretariat of Ports and Container
Terminal of Paranagua, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April
13, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (R) speaks with Brazil's Finance
Minister Nelson Barbosa during a ceremony for a contract renewal between
the Special Secretariat of Ports and Container Terminal of Paranagua,
at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April 13, 2016.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
BRASILIA: Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff pledged on
Wednesday to form a government of national unity if she survives an
impeachment vote in Congress this weekend, but the odds against her
lengthened as even remaining allies wavered in their support.
Rousseff is scrambling to shore up votes against impeachment
as a stream of defections from her coalition make it increasingly
likely she will lose Sunday’s ballot in the lower house of Congress on
whether she should face trial in the Senate over accusations she broke
budget laws.
Politicians have begun to flock this week to the residence
of the man who would replace Rousseff if she is convicted, Vice
President Michel Temer, to declare their support for him, his aides
said.
Business leaders have come out in support of Temer who
promises market-friendly policies and less government intervention to
boost the world's seventh largest economy hit by its worst downturn
since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Temer said on Tuesday he was ready to form a transitional
government with other parties to lead Brazil out of the political
crisis, raising speculation he was already forming a shadow government.
"Obviously, he will start thinking about a cabinet on Monday
if the vote is for impeachment on Sunday," Temer's press spokesman
Marcio de Freitas said.
Rousseff's chances of surviving impeachment suffered a big
blow on Tuesday with the defection of the largest ally remaining in her
coalition besides her own Workers' Party. The centrist Progressive
Party, or PP, with 49 members of the lower house, left her government
and pulled its one minister in her cabinet.
On Wednesday, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) gathered its
caucus to inform its leader Gilberto Kassab, Rousseff's minister for
cities, that a majority of its 36 lower house members would vote for her
impeachment.
The Republican Party and the smaller National Labor Party (PTN) were
due to meet later in the day, but members said most of their fellow
lawmakers would vote against Rousseff even as their leaders negotiated
jobs offered by her government."They are running away from all parties except her own Workers' Party and the Communist Party of Brazil. It's a herd mentality," a leader of Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) close to the vice president told Reuters.
He said the PMDB, which quit Rousseff's coalition two weeks
ago, projects impeachment will clear the lower house with 380 votes on
Sunday.Battling for her political survival, Rousseff handed negotiations
over to her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's
most influential politician despite a corruption investigation that
hampered his efforts to save her government.
"My first act after the vote in the lower house will be to
propose a new pact among all the political forces, without winners of
losers," Rousseff told Estado de S.Paulo newspaper in a group interview
with local media.
She voiced confidence that her supporters would deny the
opposition the 342 votes, equivalent to two-thirds of the lower house,
needed to send her impeachment to the Senate.
ODDS OF IMPEACHMENT RISING
Political risk consultancy Eurasia said Rousseff could still
try to cobble together support from centrist parties, but it will be
hard for her to stop the momentum for impeachment, with defections
raising the odds of her removal to 70 percent from a previous estimate
of 60 percent.
Rousseff's opponents are 18 votes short of victory in the
lower house, with 324 lawmakers backing impeachment and 124 opposed,
with 65 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the
Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.
The rift between Rousseff and her vice president reached
breaking point on Monday over an audio message Temer sent his supporters
calling for a government of national unity. Rousseff accused him of
leading a conspiracy to overthrow her.
In an interview with Globo News on Tuesday, Temer denied he
was plotting to become president, calmly stating: "If destiny takes me
to that position ... I will be ready."
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index soared for a second
consecutive day, rising 3 percent on investor hopes that a Rousseff
impeachment will improve the prospects of an economic recovery.
The CNT transport sector lobby on Wednesday declared its
support for impeachment saying Rousseff's government was incapable of
drawing investment needed to restore growth and lacked the political
support to pass needed reforms.
In a letter to lawmakers, Brazil's most powerful industry
lobby, the CNI, described the country's situation as "catastrophic" and
blamed Rousseff's mistaken policies.
"It's time for change," the letter seen by Reuters said.
(Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassú and Alonso Soto; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Andrew Hay)
- Reuters
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