Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff failed to get enough support in Congress yesterday for her efforts to rebalance the country’s overdrawn public accounts in yet another setback for the besieged leader.
Congress put off for a fourth time a vote on whether to back or overturn her vetoes of two spending Bills after her government was unable to gather enough lawmakers for a quorum, despite a cabinet reshuffle last week that was meant to bolster her support.
“It’s as if the government has ceased to exist,” said Congressman Pauderney Avelino of the opposition Democrats party.
The postponement highlighted Rousseff’s political isolation as she struggles to stave off impeachment efforts amid Brazil’s worst corruption scandal and the deepest recession in 25 years.
Brazil’s federal audit court was yesterday expected to reject her government’s accounts for 2014 because budget results were manipulated.
Some of her opponents are waiting to pounce on the ruling as a pretext to impeach the president for violating Brazil’s budget law, although it is not clear how much support they will have inside congress.
In a last-ditch bid to win time, the government asked the supreme court to delay yesterday’s federal accounts court ruling. The injunction was denied. – (Reuters)