Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, facing impeachment by Congress, on Tuesday denounced a conspiracy to overthrow her, suggesting that Vice President Michel Temer is one of the leaders of the plot.
A congressional committee on Monday recommended to the lower house that Rousseff be impeached for breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014, a charge Rousseff says was trumped up to remove her from office.
“They now are conspiring openly, in the light of day, to destabilise a legitimately elected president,” Rousseff said in a speech Tuesday, referring to an audio message sent by Temer to his supporters a day earlier in which he spoke as if the president had already been impeached.
The congressional committee’s 38-27 decision was backed by Temer’s PMDB party, formerly her main coalition ally. The party’s defection last month greatly increased the likelihood that the lower house, in a vote expected this weekend, will send her impeachment to the Senate.
Temer would take over if the Senate agrees to suspend Rousseff and proceed with a trial against her.
