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Dilma remains defiant despite corruption scandals
The Brazilian political landscape is a reflection of its society, and its society a reflection of its politics. One of the worst errors that a politician can do is fill herself with hubris and bravada when facing Strong opposition, yet, that is exactly what most politicians do. With some polls giving Dilma Rousseff an approval that is as low as 9%, – equal to what Americans give the US Congress – the Brazilian president has decided to “take it on the face” with new defiant stances on what she believes people need to understand about her. “I won’t fall, that is clear” has said Dilma in one of her last public statements. What Dilma does not understand is that is not her name or her person what is at stake in Brazil, but the country’s social and economic stability and even the little democracy that there is left. More on this later. The Brazilian President is more cornered than ever before by poll results, an economic crisis that becomes more chronic every day and na increasingly animated opposition to demands her removal from office. In an interview with a local newspaper, Dilma says that it is wishful thinking to believe that she will leave office or will suffer a parliamentary impeachment. Earlier this week the Brazilian president mobilized her ’emergency team’ to put out the political fire unleashed around her. First, the oppostion party PSDB, held a conference on Sunday to elect as president Senator Aécio Neves, who is keeping alive the option to take Dilma out through parliamentary impeachment. Then came the latest allegations of corruption at Petrobras, arising from allegations told by businessman Ricardo Pessoa, that involve, among others, the Brazilian equivalent of Secretary of State for Communications. In addition, Congress remains hostile to the adjustment measures necessary, according to Rousseff and her Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, to clean up the battered economy. On this last point, Rousseff met on Monday with leaders of her own party to support Michel Temer, who chairs the main formation of parliamentary government allies in Congress. Dilma’s meeting was a response to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, who despite being from the same party as Temer does not want him as an intermediary between Congress and the Government. In return, Temer ensures that parliamentary dismissal of Dilma is unfounded: “The impeachment is unthinkable now.” During the same interview with a newspaper, Rousseff said that she will neither resign nor that there is any legal basis to leave office. Those who defend the possible dismissal of Rousseff rely on the possible budgetary deviations and how her goverment has ‘balanced the books’, which is, strictly speaking, an accounting offense but not something grave such as theft. A team of auditors is now studying whether there was any wrongdoing. On the issue of financial deviaton, Rousseff shows again that she just does not get it. “If the opinion of the auditors is negative, we will oppose it in court… what we have done has been done by many others before,” she said as if that fact would make it right. Campaign donations The other issue that serves to channel hypothesis of a parliamentary impeachment s the case of corruption at Petrobras: both a businessman, Ricardo Pessoa, as a former money laundering specialist working for the perpetrators of the corrupt scheme, and Alberto Yousseff, say that they got billions of reais to grease Rousseff’s campaign in 2014. On the matter, she replied, “There’s a strange thing. The same day that my campaign received a donation, there was another campaign donation to my opponent Aécio Neves, a candidate for the presidency in 2014 by the PSDB. What is mine is bribery and the other is not?”. Both Pessoa and Yousseff have welcomed a Brazilian legal figure that allows the reduction of their sentence if they collaborate to solve the corruption cases at Petrobras. Rousseff, who was tortured during the dictatorship, does not agree with this system: “I do not like this practice … I believe that institutionalizing this practice and turning someone into an informer is dangerous..”. Rousseff estimates that growth will return to Brazil later this year while clarifying that “we do not expect a rapid recovery that is realistic. Nobody expects that.”. It’s about Democracy, not Politics or Politicians Despite having plenty of natural and human resources to easily come out of the crisis, Brazil seems to be closer to falling down the cliff than to growing wings and taking off as it was expected 6 years ago. Today, Brazil is not like Venezuela and the economy is not as bad as in Greece, but it is clear to everyone that the current Brazilian type of democracy is shakier that ever. Many experts agree that democracy is not something that lasts forever, it has to be won every day. This is something that Dilma and her party do not understand or at least do not recognize publicly. One of the pillars that has helped Brazil grow in the past and that gave it international respect was the consolidation of some democratic freedoms. In the mirror of many fragile democracies in the continent and authoritarian temptations in Europe, Brazil has always been seen, despite its abismal social imbalances and high levels of violence, as a society in which state powers have operated smoothly and freely. Perhaps that extreme level of political freedom is what has brought about so much corruption and lack of accountability. Concerns are raised by the educated class regarding the country’s severe crisis, as highlighted by major local and foreign media. A crisis that is not only economic, but also and perhaps above […] Read the rest below at the source link
Source: http://real-agenda.com/dilma-remains-defiant-despite-corruption-scandals/
