Loading ...Dilma Rousseff’s presidency is hanging by a thread after Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted in favor of her impeachment, a decision that cheered investors just as it threatens to bring down the curtain on 13 years of leftist rule.
The opposition garnered 367 votes, 25 more than the two-thirds majority it needed to send the impeachment motion to the Senate.
“The commencement of the impeachment process is authorized,” lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha said at the end of the session that was broadcast live on public screens across the nation.
Most analysts agree it will be difficult for Rousseff to muster the votes needed in the Senate to stave off her ouster. A simple majority in the upper chamber is enough to force her to step down temporarily to make way for Vice President Michel Temer and surveys released Monday by three major newspapers in Brazil show the president’s opponents have the votes. That next step could happen within 15 days, said Senator Romero Juca, the head of Temer’s PMDB party, the largest in the country.