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Battle Lines Form on Impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Roussef

By Reed Johnson and Paulo Trevisani

"Brazil’s impeachment process has both legal and political elements, and the outcome will depend on a whole range of actors and institutions," points out AS/COA's Brian Winter.

SÃO PAULO—The showdown over impeachment proceedings against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is moving from Congress into the court of public opinion.

Two days after the process was launched, pro- and anti-impeachment groups are looking to mobilize mass protests and take other actions to convince lawmakers that their side speaks for the nation as a whole.

“We need to follow the constitution, but there is a great role for the streets now,” said Senator José Agripino, a leader of Brazil’s center-right Democrats party, which would like to send the president packing. He said his party is eager to show that “it is the society against Dilma….”

…On the same day another ex-president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, said at a public forum in Lisbon, Portugal, that the financial markets would “prefer” to have Ms. Rousseff impeached. In August, Mr. Cardoso said Ms. Rousseff should make a “grand gesture” by resigning to spare Brazil from more economic and political turmoil.

The potential impact of these interventions is hard to calculate in a process that could take several months to unfold.  Brian Winter, vice president for policy at the New York-based Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said Brazil’s impeachment process has both legal and political elements, and that the outcome will “depend on a whole range of actors” and institutions….

Read the full article here.

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