BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff moved closer to impeachment when a key member of a Congressional committee said yesterday there were grounds for the Senate to put her on trial for manipulating budget accounts in 2014 to boost her reelection prospects.
Congressman Jovair Arantes told the 65-member lower house committee there were “minimal indications” that Rousseff had committed an impeachable crime, but that it was up to the Senate to judge the president.
Arantes had been asked by the committee to review the case and report back. The committee will vote on his report on Monday and submit the result to the full house for a final vote, expected by the end of next week. If two-thirds of the chamber approve the motion, Rousseff will be sent for trial in the Senate. She denies any wrongdoing.
The impeachment effort, a wide-ranging corruption scandal, and a deepening economic recession have led to Brazil’s worst political crisis since former President Fernando Collor de Mello resigned to avoid impeachment in 1992.
Rousseff, Brazil’s first woman president, could lose power as soon as May if she does not gain more support in Congress.
Arantes said the delay in treasury transfers to state banks, which Rousseff’s opponents say allowed her to increase spending in the run-up to the 2014 election, “evidently” countered fiscal responsibility rules and could be grounds to impeach her.
“The Brazilian people deserve an answer that can only be given by a trial of Rousseff in the Senate,” he said.
Accusations leveled at Rousseff’s government regarding the massive corruption scandal around state-run oil company Petrobras were not considered in his report, but could be taken into account in a Senate trial, Arantes said.
The president’s ouster is uncertain. Surveys by Brazilian media show her opponents have not secured two-thirds of the votes in the lower house to take her impeachment to the Senate. O Globo newspaper reported on Tuesday the opposition was three votes short of a majority in the impeachment committee.
