Benjamin Tavener
September 18, 2015•Update: September 18, 2015
By Ben Tavener
SAO PAULO
Brazil's opposition parties have filed a request with Congress for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, local media reported Thursday.
Critics cite alleged fiscal crimes, including those concerning unauthorized public spending in an election year.
The request was a supplement drafted by prominent lawyer Miguel Reale Jr. to a formal request submitted Sept. 1 by Helio Bicudo, a 93-year-old lawyer and human rights activist who was a founder of Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party. He left the party in 2005.
Although a request for the president's impeachment can be submitted by any citizen, commentators believe this request has the greatest chance of being accepted for consideration by Congress.
In addition to being backed by opposition politicians, the request, which was handed to Congress on Thursday by Bicudo's daughter and Reale Jr., has the support of several members of the kingmaker Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) -- the country's biggest party and a key government coalition ally.
Opposition parties will need significant support from PMDB lawmakers in Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against the president.
Accusations that Rousseff committed fiscal crimes during her time as president are based on federal audit court findings that said the president authorized, without Congress' permission, additional public spending which could have benefited her during an election year.
The application also cites so-called "fiscal maneuvers," through which the government allegedly failed to immediately repay funds from public banks used to balance the country's books; and alludes to a sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras that has left Brazil reeling from ongoing economic and political crises.
Reale Jr. told reporters in Brasilia that the opposition group "had fought a dictatorship of guns, and now fights a dictatorship of bribes," according to the G1 news portal. "The dictatorship of bribes erodes a democracy from the inside, razing the independence and honor of [Congress] through the buying of lawmaker and party support," he added.
The requests are set to be analyzed by the Speaker of the Lower House Eduardo Cunha, who has the power to begin impeachment proceedings.
Cunha told reporters on Thursday that he would "not rush his decision" nor "take it lightly", but that he would likely make progress soon. The opposition presented a point of order this week for Cunha to update the House on the progress of impeachment requests.
Cunha broke with the government last month, siding with the opposition and hampering Rousseff from implementing fiscal adjustments that she needs Congress to approve.
Re-elected by a narrow margin last year, Rousseff is facing single-digit approval ratings and mounting calls to resign or be removed from office.
The paltry state of the economy -- which economists predict will contract by 2.5 percent this year -- and swingeing public spending cuts have soured public and market opinion.
