Brazil’s Rousseff Claims No Reason For Impeachment

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff spoke out on Tuesday about recent rumors of a possible impeachment. In an interview to daily Folha de S. Paulo, Rousseff said the there was no proof of any wrongdoing by her part and dismissing the allegations as part of the political battle between her PT party and opposition parties.

“I will not step down,” she told Folha. “No one can prove I took a cent. Everyone in this country knows I didn’t take (money).”

The interview comes after some leaders of Brazil’s main opposition party, the PSDB (Social Democratic Party), called for new Presidential elections during the party’s annual convention. Although not openly supporting impeachment proceedings during the convention, party representatives implied that Rousseff would not finish her second term.

“We are currently living with endemic corruption, generating a series of interminable and shameful scandals, such as those revealed almost daily by the Operação Lava Jato,” said former PSDB Presidential candidate Aecio Neves, during his speech. “These occurrences have taken on such dimension that Brazilians have the impression that for a long time now the government and its party have not governed the country.”

Despite denials by President Rousseff and her top cabinet members that her administration is threatened, Bloomberg reports that international political risk consulting firm, Eurasia Group, sent out a letter on Tuesday to clients raising the odds that Brazil’s leader won’t finish her second term, from twenty to thirty percent. According to the consulting firm, the Lava Jato (Carwash) corruption scandal, in addition to the ailing economy, has made the Rousseff Administration very unpopular, with the President’s approval ratings dropping to one-digit numbers.