BRASILIA, Brazil — A rancorous Senate debate on the fate of President Dilma Rousseff dragged into a new day today, with her critics arguing she caused deep damage to Latin America’s largest nation while supporters called the effort to impeach her a coup d’etat.
The Senate’s march toward a historic vote on impeaching Rousseff began Wednesday morning. The debate droned on through the day and into the wee hours of this morning, with the vote possibly coming sometime around dawn.
“I’m asking for everybody’s patience because we need to see this through to the end,” Senate President Renan Calheiros said at one point.
Under the rules of the impeachment process, each senator was allowed up to 15 minutes to speak, and many made full use of their moment in the spotlight — despite admonishments by Calheiros for speakers to limit themselves to five to 10 minutes. That suggestion angered Rousseff’s supporters, who said it was a bid to curb their freedom of speech.
Several thousand pro- and anti-government demonstrators gathered outside the Senate, each group kept on opposite sides of a wall erected down the middle of the lawn.
Small but intense clashes erupted between police and Rousseff supporters, with police using pepper spray and protesters throwing firecrackers. On the other side of the wall, a Carnival-esque spirit reigned, with pro-impeachment demonstrators sipping beer while decked out in the colors of the Brazilian flag.
If a simple majority of the 81 senators voted in favor, Rousseff would be suspended from office and Vice President Michel Temer would take over for up to six months pending a Senate trial that could result in her permanent removal. That would require approval by two-third of the Senate, or 54 senators.
Polling by major newspapers indicated at least 50 senators were likely to vote in favor of impeachment. Some pro-impeachment senators said they expected as many as 60 such votes — a margin that would point to Rousseff facing a slim chance to emerge victorious from the trial and resume her mandate that ends in December 2018.
The effort to remove Rousseff originated in Congress’ lower house, which delivered a resounding 367-137 vote in favor of impeachment last month.
While the impeachment measure was based on allegations that Brazil’s first female president broke fiscal laws, the process morphed into something of a referendum on Rousseff and her handling of the country over the past six years.
Brazil is mired in the worst economic downturn in decades and a sprawling corruption scandal centered on the state-run Petrobras oil company has soured the national mood, even as the country gears up to host South America’s first Olympic Games in August.
Supporters of impeachment blame Rousseff and her Workers’ Party for the stalled economy and insist Temer, whose party has split from the governing coalition, represents the only hope of reviving it.
