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The Guardian - US
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Alan Yuhas, Claire Phipps , Nadia Khomami, Haroon Siddique and Amber Jamieson

Brazil's suspended president Dilma Rousseff condemns impeachment 'coup' – as it happened

‘Democracy is our oxygen’: Brazilians speak out about Dilma Rousseff

We are wrapping up our live coverage of a momentous couple of days in Brazilian politics now. Thanks for reading. Our latest report from Brasilia, as Michel Temer unveils his new (100% white male) cabinet, is here:

Updated

Latest summary

  • Brazil has a new interim president, Michel Temer, who previously served as vice-president under Dilma Rousseff. In Temer’s first speech as president, he said the country needed to “restore respect” to the government and that he would focus on the economy.
  • Twenty-two cabinet ministers were sworn in, along with Temer, at the presidential palace on Thursday afternoon. The ministers are all white men, the first time since 1970 that no women have been in cabinet.
  • Rousseff, the country’s first female president, has been suspended for six months after the Senate voted to launch an impeachment trial against her. She is allowed to in her presidential home while the impeachment trial goes on.
  • Rousseff gave a defiant speech before leaving the presidential palace, where she was greeted and hugged by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rousseff vowed to fight the impeachment, which she calls a “coup.”

Scenes on Brazilian TV showed the violent scuffle outside the Presidential Palace as a group of anti-Temer protesters attempted a lie-in on the ramp up to the building. A guard sprays a female protester in the face and then beats her on the leg with a baton.

From a reporter leaving after the Temer speech:

Temer lauded the importance of the slogan on national flag “Order and Progress,” during his first speech.

Brazil’s new president said he hadn’t expected it to be such a raucous celebration during the swearing in (thanks to the large crowds and constant cheering), noting that it was a time for seriousness.

In Rio di Janeiro, some residents of Jardim Botânico - a middle class neighorbood just next to the fancy beach ‘burbs of Copacabana and Leblon - are creating their own protest during Temer’s speech.

Inside, Temer is still giving his first talk as president, but is struggling with his voice. Clearly the long night of the impeachment has caught up with him, his voice cracking constantly and at times unable to speak.

Temer referenced Lava Joto, the corruption investigation, and said it must be protected.

Female protesters attempting to enter the presidential palace were sprayed with tear gas by police, according to reporters outside.

The women were attempted to enter where president Michel Temer is currently speaking.

This video apparently shows when the team from Globo, a major broadcaster, were struck.

New president Temer is now speaking, with a lot of emphasis on building the economy.

But he notes that he knows Brazil is a poor country and that social protections will remain to protect the needy.

The new ministers - 22 of them, all male - are being sworn into their roles.

A livefeed from Globo shows a very crowded room of men cheering and occasionally signing pieces of paper to become a minister.

Just in case you weren’t sure, Temer was announced officially to reporters.

Michel Temer finally arrives at the presidential palace to speak to reporters for the first time as president of Brazil.

Hopefully Temer’s first presidential press conference goes better than a radio interview he did today, where he mistook an Argentinian radio presenter for the country’s president, Mauricio Macri.

“How are you President? ... I want to visit you soon,” Temer told a reporter from the El Mundo radio station, according to a Reuters report.

Temer was not informed of his confusion during the interview.

When questioned about how the impeachment proceedings and drama was unfolding, Temer said he felt “very calm ... concerned about the situation, but we’re going to face it with a lot of enthusiasm.”

A small crowd of protesters have gathered outside the building in Brasilia where Michel Temer will soon host his first press conference as interim president.

Inside, journalists are filling up the room in anticipation of his first speech.

Intimate photographs stolen from president Temer's wife

Barely one day as president, and already interim president Michel Temer is hit with a scandal. It seems someone hacked the phone and internet accounts of Marcela Temer, the new first lady of Brazil, stole intimate photographs (it’s unknown exactly what the pictures show), and then attempted to extort the Temers.

As Reuters reports:

Brazilian police have arrested three people on charges of hacking the internet account of the wife of Brazil’s interim president and attempting to extort money after stealing intimate photographs, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper said on Thursday.

The newspaper said that police had arrested the hacker, his wife and his sister-in-law on Wednesday. A police spokesman declined to comment, saying that the case was ongoing.

...The alleged hacker, who worked as a roofer, gained access to Marcela’s cell phone and internet accounts 30 days ago, the newspaper said. He, his wife and sister-in-law had attempted to extort money from the Temers, Folha reported. It did not name them.

Updated

Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer, who was vice-president under Dilma Rousseff, will soon address the public. While we wait for that, let’s have a little look at some juicy tidbits on the new president.

From a Guardian profile published last month:

Compared with the colorful firebrands that make the most noise in the Brazilian political world, the 75-year-old constitutional lawyer cuts a quiet and somewhat gothic figure with grey, slicked-back hair, a stately bearing and a young beauty queen of a wife who has her husband’s name tattooed on her neck.

...The youngest of eight children in a family of Lebanese Christians who migrated to São Paulo in the 1920s, Temer studied law and entered congress in 1987. A calm and methodical organiser and moderator, he quickly rose to a senior position in a party known for dealmaking rather than ideology.

Marcela Temer displays a tattoo with the name of her husband, vice-president Michel Temer, during the inauguration ceremony of president Dilma Rousseff on January 1, 2011.
Marcela Temer displays a tattoo with the name of her husband, vice-president Michel Temer, during the inauguration ceremony of president Dilma Rousseff on January 1, 2011. Photograph: Globo/Globo via Getty Images

For reasons unknown, the internet does not have a clear photo of the Temer tattoo.

From a Washington Post profile published earlier today:

He is the author of Anonymous Intimacy, a book of sensual verses inspired by his wife, Marcela, who was a 20 year-old aspiring beauty queen when she became Temer’s third wife in 2003.

...He is sometimes mocked as “The Butler” because he is said to resemble a character in a campy horror movie, and is the kind of restrained figure who seems to knows much but say little in public.

Updated

A report says Globo, a major TV network in Brazil, has asked its stars to “go lightly” in public on social media about the Senate’s vote on impeachment proceedings.

But Globo presenter and actress Monica Iozzi is tweeting and posting about the impeachment, including this retweet of a message written by actress (formerly in Globo telenovelas) Patricia Pillar.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives just outside of Rio de Janeiro, insinuates in this tweet that the impeachment of Rousseff was simply a move by opponents to oust her party from power.

PT refers to the Workers Party, the center-left party that has ruled the country since 2002.

The Cato Institute, a libertiarian think tank created by the billionaire Koch brothers, says the impeachment proceedings against Rousseff offer a rare chance for politicians to be held accountable against corruption.

Ian Vasquez, director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, said in a statement:

Nobody is surprised that corruption exists at high levels in Brazil. The real story in Brazil is that institutional and policy changes in that country over the past several decades have led to a situation in which some of the most powerful member’s of Brazil’s political establishment and business elite are now being legally tried and convicted for wrongdoing. All of Latin America is watching in surprise at, and applauding, this level of accountability that judicial systems in the region rarely attain. The coming impeachment of Rousseff will not solve Brazil’s problems, but the strengthening of the rule of law that it represents puts the country on a stronger path for stability and development.

Here’s a rundown of President Temer’s new cabinet.

  • Henrique Meirelles (Treasurer)
  • Romero Jucá (Planning)
  • Marcos Pereira (Development, Industy and Commerce)
  • José Serra (Foreign Minister)
  • Eliseu Padilha (Civil Office)
  • Geddel Vieira Lima (Government Secretary)
  • Sérgio Etchegoyen (Secretary of the the security bureai)
  • Mendonça Filho (Education)
  • Ricardo Barros (Health)
  • Alexandre de Moraes (Justice)
  • Blairo Maggi (Agriculture)
  • Ronaldo Nogueira (Employment)
  • Osmar Terra (Social and Agrarian Development)
  • Sarney Filho (Environment)
  • Bruno Araújo (Cities)
  • Gilberto Kasssab (Science, Technology and Communications )
  • Maurício Quintella (Transport)
  • Fabio Medina (Attorney General )
  • Fabiano Augusto Martins Silveira (Transparency, Control and Oversight )
  • Raul Jungmann (Defense)
  • Henrique Alves (Tourism)
  • Leonardo Picciani (Sport)

During Dilma Rousseff’s last hours in office, supporters of her impeachment trial and pro-Rousseff campaigners gathered outside the Brazilian congress to await the senate vote. Reporter Ana Terra Athayde was there.

‘Democracy is our oxygen’: Brazilians speak out about Dilma Rousseff

Interim president Michel Temer released the names of his cabinet team.

But after the country’s first female president, the new round of ministers is distinctly male.

Updated

In a just released video, Dilma Rousseff declares there is “no reason” for her to be impeached as, she says, she committed no crime, received no bribes and wasn’t involved in corruption.

She called the Senate’s vote to begin an impeachment trial of her a “decisive moment for Brazilian democracy and our future as a nation.”

“What is at play is the future of the country,” said Rousseff, who said her impeachment was “fraudulent” and a “true blow to democracy.”

She notes in the video that 54 million Brazilians voted to elect her president and that those votes should be respected.

Rousseff said her opponents have fought her presidency since the beginning and openly conspired to impeach her, and that their actions resulted in constant political instability that has affected the country’s economy.

“My government has been a target of intense and incessant sabotage,” said Rousseff.

Updated

Summary

  • Brazil’s senate has voted by 55 to 22 to suspend the country’s first women president, Dilma Rousseff, for six months. She will have to step aside while she is tried in the upper house for allegedly manipulating government accounts ahead of the previous election.
  • Rousseff gave a defiant speech before leaving the presidential palace, accusing her opponents of political opportunism and of carrying out a “coup”. She vowed to fight the charges, saying: “I may have committed errors but I never committed crimes.”
  • The vice-president Michel Temer, accused of similar transgressions, has taken over as interim president. His support in parliament means he is unlikely to face any charges.
  • Temer’s cabinet, announced on Thursday, is 100% male and 100% white. It is said to be the first time since 1970 that there have been no women in the cabinet.

This is the moment Rousseff received a consoling hug from her predecessor as president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva outside the presidential palace.

She then addressed the crowd of her supporters.

Not sure if this is how Temer would have imagined his ascendancy to power.

Here are some more quotes from Rouseff’s press conference.

I may have made mistakes but I did not commit any crime.

Rousseff called the impeachment “fraudulent” and “a coup”.

I never imagined that it would be necessary to fight once again against a coup in this country.

Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff makes a statement next to her mother Dilma Jane Coimbra (R) at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on 12 May, 2016.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff makes a statement next to her mother Dilma Jane Coimbra (R) at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on 12 May, 2016. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

AP says she compared the pain of being impeached to the torture she suffered under the country’s past military dictatorship.

It’s the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being to be condemned for a crime you didn’t commit.

Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Never will I stop fighting.

Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

The new interim president has announced his cabinet. It is reportedly 100% male (for the first time since 1979) and 100% white.

Meanwhile, Temer is officially the interim president.

Rousseff has been making another speech to supporters outside the presidential palace, with her predecessor standing beside her.

According to Reuters she told supporters she feels their energy and warmth but said it is a tragic time for Brazil’s young democracy. She repeated that she is the victim of a great injustice.

Here are some more striking pictures of the suspended Brazilian president leaving the building:

Rousseff has left the presidential palace:

The outgoing president has referenced her battle against cancer, in stressing her determination to fight impeachment.

Rousseff will continue to fight impeachment

Rousseff says she has been subjected to a coup by her political opponents and will continue to fight impeachment.

'Democracy at stake' Rousseff

The suspended Brazilian president says democracy is at stake.

https://twitter.com/lourdesgnavarro/status/730764108912562176

Updated

Rousseff begins.

Ministers who served in Rousseff’s government as well as congress members from her party. are lining up behind the podium where she will speak.

Meanwhile, supporters are gathered outside.

Rousseff is due to speak shortly.

You can watch it live on Periscope:

Protesters chant “Temer, traitor” in the video below. And beneath the video is an unflattering cartoon of the man who has stepped into Rousseff’s shoes.

The president of the International Olympic Committee is upbeat about this Summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, despite recent events in Brazil.

Thomas Bach said:

there is strong support for the Olympic Games in Brazil and we look forward to working with the new government to deliver successful games in Rio this summer.

He said preparations for the 5-21 August event “have now entered into a very operational phase and issues such as these have much less influence than at other stages of organising the Olympic Games”.

He added:

We have seen the great progress being made in Rio de Janeiro and we remain confident about the success of the Olympic Games in August.

Rousseff: It's a coup

Dilma Rousseff is yet to talk - two posts on her Facebook page, however, give her reaction to the vote to suspend her. “É GOLPE” - It’s a coup.

A screengrab of Dilma Rousseff's Facebook page.
Dilma Rousseff’s Facebook timeline calls the vote to suspend her a coup Photograph: Facebook

The most recent of the two links to attorney general José Eduardo Cardozo speaking in her defence at the end of the impeachment debate.

Updated

Here are some Rousseff supporters

Brazil’s shrinking economy is widely considered to be one of the reasons behind Rousseff’s downfall. Reuters reports that Temer is making plans to address the problem.

Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer will announce on Thursday measures to rebalance depleted fiscal accounts and generate new jobs in a country mired in its worst recession in decades, one of his top advisers told Reuters.

Temer will take office on Thursday after the Senate voted to suspend President Dilma Rousseff for up to six months to face trial for allegedly breaking budgetary laws.

“This is start of a new era in which we have the challenge to find a solution to the biggest economic crisis in our history,” said the adviser, Wellington

Moreira Franco, who helped draft Temer’s economic blueprint.

“The measures that will be announced have two objectives: Rebalance the fiscal accounts and revive economic growth to generate new jobs.”

He confirmed that Temer will name former central bank chief Henrique Meirelles to be finance minister. He added that Mansueto Almeida, a public accounts’ expert, will likely be the next Treasury chief.

Memes of Rousseff leaving office are emerging on social media.

Only two members of Rousseff’s cabinet will stay under Temer, says NPR’s south America correspondent:

Another newspaper front page shows a picture of Temer being hung on the wall to replace one of Rousseff.

Senate president Renan Calheiros says that Rousseff will remain in the presidential residence despite being impeached and suspended by the senate. From AP:

Now that lawmakers have voted to impeach Rousseff, the chamber has up to 180 days to conduct a trial and then vote whether to remove her permanently.

Calheiros says that in the meantime Rousseff will have security guards, health care, and the right to air and ground travel, as well as staff for her personal office. He also says she’ll receive a salary, though he didn’t specify what it would be.

“A chancer for Temer” (described by AP as “one of the country’s least popular politicians), reads the front page of the digital edition of one of Brazil’s newspapers.

This shows how each individual senator voted:

I’m now handing the blog over to my colleague Haroon Siddique, who will be keeping you up to date with any reaction to today’s monumental vote.

Temer’s cabinet is also rumoured to include Blairo “soybean king” Maggi, who is tipped for Minister of Agriculture. In recent weeks he has been “advancing a constitutional amendment that would effectively extinguish the requirement for environmental approvals on public building work,” the Globe and Mail reports.

According to the Globe and Mail, Temer’s rumoured cabinet is entirely male and and entirely white. Stephanie Nolan writes:

Temer’s choice for the key post of finance minister is Henrique Meirelles, an economist and politician who served as a popular central bank president from 2003-11.

Like him, everyone else on the rumoured cabinet list is male, and white, in a country that is 53-per-cent black and mixed race. Many come from the powerful agribusiness and rural landowner bloc in Congress, and are associated with a dramatically different legislative agenda than that of Ms. Rousseff’s party.

What does impeachment mean exactly in Brazil? The New York Times attempts to answer that question.

In Brazil, Ms. Rousseff has not yet been impeached, legal scholars say.

“In Brazil, the term impeachment is used only after a conviction is made in the trial,” said Daniel Vargas, a law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro.

Now that Brazil’s Senate has voted against her on Thursday, Ms. Rousseff will have to step aside during her impeachment trial, which could last for six months. But if she is ultimately absolved, she will not have been impeached, Mr. Vargas said.

Senator Romero Juca, from the opposition Democratic Movement Party, has said the 55-22 vote to impeach Rousseff suggests it would be very difficult for her to win her mandate back during the impeachment trial. He said:

It was a painful process, a process that has changed Brazil but it is necessary to change Brazil. People today are having difficulties. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every day, companies are closing. Life is getting worse. It’s not possible to continue the way things are.

If you are living in Brazil, we’d like to hear your views on the latest events. What are your concerns about the political situation and the future of the country? Tell us by clicking on the blue contribute button. You can also share your stories, photos and videos with the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.

These photographs of the marathon Senate session and voting are worth a look.

Senator Humberto Costa of the Workers Party talks about the vote and future opposition to the government of Michel Temer:

So what do we know about Vice President Michel Temer, the man poised to become Brazil’s new leader? Reuters have put together a brief biography of a man who has spent decades in politics and is known for his quiet yet calculating demeanour, fine suits, and a penchant for poetry.

While Rousseff is known for her ‘in-your-face’ style, those who have worked with Temer say he is serene and possesses a rare trait in Brazilian politics - the patience to listen to allies and adversaries alike.

The challenge before him is daunting. Brazil is mired in its worst recession since the 1930s and he will have to make rapid moves to restore confidence. Rousseff and her ruling Workers Party (PT) have branded Temer a traitor and say that impeachment amounts to a coup.

Temer bitterly broke with Rousseff five months ago, accusing her of sidelining him. He has already chosen several key ministers who are heavy hitters in Brazil’s political and business classes and will clearly take a more liberal economic approach than the leftist Rousseff.

He honed his craft over several years in Brazil’s bare-knuckle lower house of Congress, where he was an ally to both centrist President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Temer, 75, earned a reputation for remaining above the fray. He rarely raises his voice, is said not to curse and refrains from the wild gesticulation and theatrics his peers employ during debates.

“Temer is assertive, but not aggressive. He speaks, but not too much. He’s restrained. Yet he has shown he can negotiate with anyone, on the right or left,” said Eliane Cantanhede, a political commentator with the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper and Globo TV who has covered the vice president for decades.

Supporters enthused that this would enable him to get things done. “He builds political bridges and will be able to win the congressional support to carry out the reforms needed to revive our economy and political system,” said Deputy Darcisio Perondi, a member of Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) who has known the vice president for two decades.

But there are some doubts even among those eager to see a change. Though Brazil’s stock markets and currency rallied at the prospect of a business-friendly Temer government, some investors have voiced concern at his low-profile leadership style.

They worry he will not be assertive enough to control a politically chaotic moment, and that he will not be able to withstand the ferocious opposition the PT has vowed awaits what it considers to be an illegitimate government.

Updated

Fireworks are reportedly going off in Brazil.

Updated

Read Jonathan Watts’ full report on Dilma Rousseff’s suspension from office, what one politician called the “saddest day for Brazil’s young democracy”:

Less than halfway through her elected mandate, Dilma Rousseff has been stripped of her presidential duties for at least six months after senators voted 55-22 to impeach her and put her on trial.

After what one politician called the “saddest day for Brazil’s young democracy”, a majority of the senators voted after a late-running impeachment debate that they would vote to suspend the Workers’ party leader, putting economic problems, political paralysis and alleged fiscal irregularities ahead of the 54 million votes that put her in office.

Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, will have to step aside for at least six months while she is tried in the upper house for allegedly manipulating government accounts ahead of the previous election. Her judges will be senators, many of whom are accused of more serious crimes.

Here is the latest take from the Associated Press on the voting results, which is seen as a victory for the pro-impeachment camp.

Brazil’s Senate has voted 55-22 to impeach the South American giant’s first woman president.

President Dilma Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks to hide large budget deficits.

Rousseff will be suspended and replaced for up to six months by Vice President Michel Temer pending a trial in the Senate. The trial will determine whether Rousseff can serve out her second term, or whether her ally-turned-enemy, Temer, will remain in the top job through the December 2018 end of the term.

The result represents a victory for the pro-impeachment camp. It was significantly higher than the simple majority of 41 votes needed to suspend her. It sends a signal that Rousseff faces an uphill battle to return to power.

Thursday’s vote capped a marathon session in the Senate that lasted more than 20 hours.

This is the moment the results of the vote were announced, a historic moment in Brazil that brings to end 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers Party.

The charges against Dilma Rousseff will now be investigated in committee for up to 180 days. Vice President Michel Temer will assume power during this period.

Updated

Senate votes for suspension of Rousseff

The vote has concluded with 55 votes in favour of suspension and 22 against.

Updated

“You can vote now”, the president of the Senate says three times.

Updated

Cardozo warned Brazil will become the “biggest banana republic on the planet” if impeachment passes.

A vote is imminent. You can watch a livestream below:

Speeches from senators are now over, and the Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo is speaking in defence of Rousseff. The vote is now nearing, with a majority expected to vote in favour of impeachment.

Updated

What we know so far

In a session of the Senate in Brasilia now around 20 hours long, senators have been making speeches ahead of a vote that will decide whether President Dilma Rousseff will be suspended from her role.

  • Brazil’s president looks poised to be suspended from office after most senators said they would back moves to impeach her.
  • Of the 66 senators who have so far made speeches, 45 say they will back impeachment, 20 will oppose it, and one – former president Fernando Collor, who himself faced impeachment proceedings in 1992 – did not reveal his intention.
  • Some 71 of the total 81 senators have indicated they intend to make a speech before voting can start. It’s estimated that the formal vote will be held around 7am local time (6am EDT/11am BST/8pm AEST).
  • If the formal vote follows what senators have indicated, it will be well above the simple majority of 41 required to suspend Rousseff from the presidency for 180 days while congress decides whether she should be permanently removed.
  • The vice-president, Michel Temer, who is expected to step into Rousseff’s role on Thursday, has begun to assemble his ministry, with the current president’s aides indicating she will dismiss her own ministers and tell them not to help the transition.
  • Rousseff is due to make a public speech at 10am local time on Thursday.
  • Scuffles have taken place outside the government buildings in Brasilia, where police have used teargas against pro-Rousseff demonstrators.

I’m now handing over the live blog to my colleague Nadia Khomami in London, who’ll continue to bring you updates through the official vote and beyond. Thanks for reading.

Updated

Less than halfway through her elected mandate, Dilma Rousseff appears set to be stripped of her presidential duties for at least six months after a majority of senators said they would vote to impeach her and put her on trial.

After what one politician called the “saddest night for Brazil’s young democracy”, more than half of the 81 senators declared in a late-running impeachment debate that they would vote to suspend the Workers’ party leader, putting economic problems, political paralysis and alleged fiscal irregularities ahead of the 54 million votes that put her in office.

A formal vote is expected in the next few hours.

If all the senators vote as they have indicated, Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, will have to step aside for at least six months while she is tried in the upper house for allegedly manipulating government accounts ahead of the previous election. Her judges will be senators, many of whom are accused of more serious crimes.

Read more here:

Senator Cássio Cunha Lima tweets that he now expects the vote to take place at 7am local time (11am BST/8pm AEST/6am EDT) – more than 20 hours after the senate session started:

Latest tally of how senators have declared they will vote:

  • 43 senators say they will vote in favour of impeaching Dilma Rousseff
  • 20 senators say they will vote against
  • one – ex-president Collor – made a speech but did not declare his intention.

Senator Humberto Costa, of Rousseff’s Workers’ party, speaks now.

He says the impeachment is a means for those defeated in the 2014 general election to get their hands on power, usurping the votes of regular Brazilians.

The president is not a criminal, he tells the senate, waving a photograph of a younger Rousseff.

Updated

Senator José Serra is up now. He’s likely to become a minister if/when Temer steps up to the presidency. Serra tells the senate that to continue with Rousseff as president would be a bigger tragedy than impeachment.

Impeachment isn’t an exceptional event, he says, but a constitutional solution:

The 62nd senator to speak, Walter Pinheiro, is now at the lectern.

Some 71 senators are due to make speeches ahead of the vote. At 15 minutes each – the limit – we would still be more than two hours away from a formal result.

Why is this happening?

For those joining our coverage 18 hours into the senate session (this is not a joke), here’s a helpful recap via Reuters:

President Dilma Rousseff, who has been in office since 2011, has seen her popularity crushed by Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s and a two-year probe into a vast kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras.

Rousseff was chairwoman of Petrobras when much of the graft occurred, but she has not been accused of corruption.

She stands charged with manipulating government accounts to disguise the size of Brazil’s fiscal deficit to allow her to boost public spending during her 2014 re-election campaign, a practice also employed by previous presidents.

The political crisis has deepened Brazil’s recession and comes at a time when Brazil hoped to be shining on the world stage as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.

Opposition senators blamed Rousseff for running into the ground an economy now considered the worst performing among major developing nations, pursuing what they called populist policies that led to high inflation, recession and unemployment.

Rousseff has denied committing any crime that warrants impeachment charges. She has called her impeachment a coup and vowed to fight the process until the last minute.

Dilma Rousseff and chief of staff Jaques Wagner look out from Planalto Palace in Brasilia as the senate heard calls for her impeachment.
Dilma Rousseff and chief of staff Jaques Wagner look out from Planalto Palace in Brasilia as the senate heard calls for her impeachment. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters

I’m resurfacing this eye-opening read from the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Jon Watts, which spells out the rocky road ahead:

If the suspension of Rousseff goes ahead – as it now looks set to – the presidential line of succession will have been decimated in the past week, with possibly more to come.

Normally, this is how it looks:

  • President
  • Vice-president
  • Speaker of the lower house
  • Leader of the upper house
  • Chief justice of the supreme court

But here’s the situation today:

  • Almost suspended: President Dilma Rousseff will have to step aside if, as now appears certain, the Senate votes to put her on trial for “crimes of responsibility” as a result of alleged window dressing of government accounts.
  • Accused and fined: Vice-president Michel Temer will probably form a government, but he is facing impeachment on the same charges as Rousseff. He has also been named in two plea bargains in the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) investigation, making him one of the major figures in the bribery scandal at the state-run oil company Petrobras.
  • Suspended: House speaker Eduardo Cunha was stripped of his position last week by the supreme court because he used his powers to obstruct the Lava Jato investigation. He also faces charges of bribery and perjury. His replacement, interim speaker Waldir Maranhão, is also under investigation for receiving bribes, and announced on Wednesday that he would soon step aside. Many constitutional experts argue an interim speaker cannot be considered in the line of succession.
  • Accused: The head of the Senate and the man overseeing today’s impeachment, Renan Calheiros, is the subject of 11 criminal probes, nine of which are related to Lava Jato.
  • Viable but near term’s end: The supreme court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski is not under investigation but his mandate finishes in September, when he is due to be replaced by Carmen Lucia.

In conclusion: two of the five are likely to be suspended by Thursday, another two are under investigation, and the final potential successor is an unelected judge who is about to be replaced.

I’d guess the odds on Lucia, who is not even in the frame right now, becoming president by the end of the year might be shorter than those last August for Leicester winning the Premiership.

What happens next?

Senators must still vote formally on the move to impeach Rousseff.

Thursday

  • A vote will take place in the senate in the next few hours. If, as now looks inevitable, there is a simple majority in favour (41 of the 81 senators, although reports suggest only 78 are likely to attend the vote), Dilma Rousseff is suspended from office for 180 days.
  • Vice-president Michel Temer assumes power on an interim basis.

Within 180 days

  • The charges against her will be investigated in committee.
  • A full plenary of the senate, presided over by the chief justice, will then sit in judgment on Rousseff. If two-thirds approve, she will be permanently removed from office and Temer will be president until the next election in 2018.

Majority of senators say they will vote for impeachment

Senator Blairo Maggi is the 58th senator to speak and the 41st to declare he will vote in favour of impeachment.

Assuming senators vote later as they have said they will, Dilma Rousseff will be suspended from office for 180 days while congress decides if she will be permanently ousted.

Brazilian TV network Globo reports that three senators are not expected to vote today.

Two – Eduardo Braga and Jader Barbalho – are on sick leave, it says, and another, Pedro Chaves dos Santos, has not yet taken office.

This would leave 78 senators available to vote on the impeachment process – in which case, the 40 senators who have so far said they will vote in favour would be enough to secure Rousseff’s suspension.

Forty senators have now declared that they intend to vote for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

In a full senate of 81, just one more vote would be needed to secure her suspension. Not all senators have attended the session so far.

Paulo Paim, speaking now, says he will vote against the move to impeach, the 16th senator to do so.

Latest tally:

  • 39 senators have said they will vote in favour of impeachment.
  • 16 have said they will vote against.

When formal voting begins, a simple majority of 41 would see Dilma Rousseff suspended from office for 180 days.

What we know so far

In a lengthy session of the Senate in Brasilia, senators have been speaking ahead of a vote that will decide whether President Dilma Rousseff will be suspended from her role.

  • In the 16 hours since the session began, 55 senators have made speeches (the 56th, Paulo Paim, is speaking now).
  • Some 71 of the total 81 senators have indicated they intend to make a speech before voting can start. The Senate leader, Renan Calheiros, has predicted the vote will be held around 6am local time (5am EDT/10am BST/7pm AEST).
  • Most senators who have made speeches have declared how they intend to vote, with 39 saying they will back impeachment, 15 pledging to oppose it, and one – former president Fernando Collor, who himself faced impeachment proceedings in 1992 – not revealing his intention.
  • A simple majority of 41 will be enough to suspend Rousseff from the presidency for 180 days while congress decides whether she should be permanently removed.
  • The vice-president, Michel Temer, who is expected to step into Rousseff’s role on Thursday, has begun to assemble his ministry, with the current president’s aides indicating she will dismiss her own ministers and tell them not to help the transition.
  • Rousseff is due to make a public speech at 10am local time on Thursday.
  • Scuffles have taken place outside the government buildings in Brasilia, where police have used teargas against pro-Rousseff demonstrators.
Protesters against the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in São Paulo.
Protesters against the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in São Paulo. Photograph: ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Associated Press files this dispatch from the late-night sitting:

Brazilian senators have a long way to go to finish their debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

The chamber is still crowded, although there are more aides than senators themselves. Older senators have gone off for naps and are having their aides call when their time to speak is about to come.

The Senate leader, Renan Calheiros, had hoped the body could vote on impeachment by late Wednesday. He is now predicting that the vote can be held around 6am local time (5am EDT/10am BST/7pm AEST).

If a simple majority of the 81 senators vote in favour, Rousseff will be suspended from office and vice-president Michel Temer will take over for up to six months pending a decision on whether to remove her from office permanently.

Updated

Pro- and anti-Rousseff demonstrators have been waiting outside the government buildings for the conclusion of the Senate session – which could still be some hours away.

Polls have found a majority of Brazilians in favour of impeaching Rousseff, though many remain concerned about those likely to succeed her.

Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia.
Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP
A woman protests against Rousseff calling for her impeachment in Sao Paulo.
A woman protests against Rousseff calling for her impeachment in Sao Paulo. Photograph: Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters

Latest tally of the 50 senators who have spoken so far:

  • 35 say they will vote for impeachment
  • 14 say they will vote against
  • 1 (Collor) has not said how he will vote

And another reminder: a simple majority is required to see Rousseff suspended. On a full complement of 81 senators, with all members present, that’s 41 votes needed for the impeachment process to go ahead.

So far, we have not seen all senators in the chamber. However, that could of course change when voting officially begins.

Updated

We reach a milestone of sorts with the 50th senator to come forward to make a speech: Paulo Rocha.

Seventy-one senators are slated to have their 15 minutes at the podium before voting officially starts.

Lindbergh Farias, a senator for Rousseff’s Workers’ party, is up now and despite the late hour – it’s currently 1.30am in Brasilia – is making an impassioned speech, saying the prospective Temer government is “born bankrupt” and “paving the way towards fascism”.

“We will not recognise this government,” he says.

“We know the result today,” he says, before exhorting colleagues to mount a strong opposition. The senate is looking fairly sparsely occupied at this point, however.

Updated

Someone at the Associated Press is suffering from lack of sleep, if the headline on its latest report is anything to go by:

Debate on future of Brazil’s president drones into 2nd day

Fernando Bezerra Coelho, a former minister in Rousseff’s administration, has said he will vote to impeach her.

The removal of the president “will not resolve the serious political and economic crisis experienced by the country”, Lídice da Mata adds.

She says Temer will struggle with a lack of legitimacy should he become president.

She will vote against impeachment.

Socialist party senator Lídice da Mata has been speaking. She says “all presidents and dozens of governors” have committed the acts for which Rousseff is now condemned.

She adds that Temer’s move to assemble his new government before the impeachment process was even completed was a move that would make even House of Cards protagonist Frank Underwood blush.

We have now reached 34 senators announcing their intention to vote for impeachment, 10 against, and one – Collor – who made a speech but didn’t show his hand.

Updated

Cardoso: 'clear case of impeachment'

Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 2002

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was president of Brazil from 1995 to 2003, has been speaking on CNN. He thinks the senate vote will go against Rousseff:

Probably the decision will be to continue to proceed with the impeachment process.

Having previously opposed the move, Cardoso says he recently decided to back impeachment:

I was reluctant at the beginning because i know how hard is the process of impeachment … Now is different. Brazil is a sound democracy [and] the constitution is very clear.

Quizzed on why Rousseff is being pursued for flouting financial rules broken by former leaders, including Cardoso himself, he adds:

It’s quite different to what I did and President Lula … it’s quite a clear case of impeachment … It’s obvious that this is against the constitution.

On what happens next for Brazil, Cardoso says:

There is an enormous amount of corruption, not only within government but sustained by people within government … People don’t trust any more the political system, political life.

Since President Rousseff was not able to regain confidence … why was she proceeding the way she was? She was increasing the lack of confidence.

To me this is a more profound crisis than just the case of President Rousseff.

Updated

Senate leader enjoys a joke

Leader of the senate Renan Calheiros, right, with Senator Jose Serra during the impeachment proceedings.
Leader of the senate Renan Calheiros, right, with Senator Jose Serra during the impeachment proceedings. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Ex-president Collor makes his speech

Senator Fernando Collor de Mello speaks during the proceedings.
Senator Fernando Collor de Mello speaks during the proceedings. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Outside the Senate

Police keep watch outside the justice ministry during protests over the impeachment session.
Police keep watch outside the justice ministry during protests over the impeachment session. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

So far, 41 of the 71 senators who have indicated they will speak in the debate (of the 81 senators in total) have said their piece.

Of these 41:

  • 31 said they would vote for impeachment
  • 9 said they would vote against
  • 1 did not declare his voting intention

The vote itself is not due to take place until around 4am local time.

What happens next?

Dilma Rousseff has been preparing for defeat by planning her exit from the presidential palace, Reuters reports:

Aides said she will dismiss her ministers on Thursday morning and tell them not to help a transition to a Temer government because she considers her impeachment illegal.

With a change of government imminent, Michel Temer plans to swear in new ministers on Thursday afternoon, Senator Romero Jucá, head of his Brazilian Democratic Movement party (PMDB), told reporters.

The president’s plan to dismiss all her cabinet if and when the Senate suspends her will force Temer to hit the ground running, since he was counting on a gradual transition to a new cabinet.

Two Rousseff aides said, however, that the dismissal of her cabinet would exclude central bank governor Alexandre Tombini, and the current sports minister, who is scrambling to prepare for the Rio 2016 games.

Leaning toward a liberal economic policy, Temer has picked former central bank chief Henrique Meirelles to be finance minister and Itau Unibanco’s chief economist Ilan Goldfajn as head of the central bank.

Current president Dilma Rousseff and president-in-waiting Michel Temer.
Current president Dilma Rousseff and president-in-waiting Michel Temer. Photograph: Eraldo Peres/AP

An updated tally: so far 29 senators have said they will vote in favour of impeachment.

Nine have said they will vote against.

With your customary reminder: a simple majority is enough to see Rousseff suspended. On a full complement of 81 senators, with all members present, that’s 41 votes needed to impeach.

The vote itself will start after the 71 senators slated to speak have all had their turn. We are currently on number 40, Valdir Raupp.

Ex-president Collor speaks in Senate

Former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who himself faced impeachment by the senate in 1992, speaks of a “country in ruins” at the “apex of a crisis”.

Talking of the impeachment process he faced, Collor says he was falsely accused. He appears to be talking about himself rather a lot. “There was no crime” in his case, he insists. Nonetheless he lost the presidency.

People did not listen to his advice about the current crisis, he says. Amid coups, the presidency has enjoyed only “spasms of democracy”.

Collar is certainly opposed to his own impeachment vote of 24 years ago. He did not say explicitly how he would vote today.

Updated

At the moment, though, we are watching Senator Armando Monteiro make his speech. He was a minister in Rousseff’s government and opposes impeachment, which he says would “cause a serious institutional rupture” in Brazil.

Fernando Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected president of post-military Brazil, is due to speak next.

He himself faced impeachment in 1992 – though he resigned before being disqualified by a vote in the senate – and as a senator is one of those facing investigation as part of the Petrobras scandal for allegedly taking kickbacks.

Updated

Sousa says there is a “sexist, misogynist aspect” to the action against Rousseff:

Updated

Next up is Senator Regina Sousa, of Rousseff’s own Workers’ party, who unsurprisingly says she will oppose what she describes as a “coup”:

Brazil has had worse crises without deposing its leaders, she says, adding that in this instance the opposition had decided it did not want Rousseff to govern:

Because those 15-minute speeches just aren’t long enough, some senators carry on even after the microphone is cut off:

And with the 35th senator to speak – Cássio Cunha Lima – we’ve now reached the halfway point of the 70 whose names were on the list to make a speech today. Only 11 hours in.

Senator Hélio José is speaking now. He is the 34th senator to make a speech. José is a member of Temer’s PMDB and says the debate in the senate today has been “high level” and “brilliant”.

Associated Press sends this dispatch on unrest outside the senate tonight:

Protesters supporting Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff have clashed with police on the lawn outside the Senate as senators debated whether to impeach the leader.

It wasn’t clear what sparked the short but intense confrontations. Police used pepper spray to drive back protesters. Demonstrators largely from feminist groups threw firecrackers at police lines.

Emergency service workers took several people out of the area after they fell ill with the effects of the clouds of pepper spray.

On the Senate floor, Communist party senator Vanessa Grazziontin expressed worry about what she called spiralling levels of “unnecessary violence” directed at pro-Rousseff demonstrators.

A wall erected down the center of the lawn separated several thousand Rousseff supporters from a similar-sized group of pro-impeachment protesters. On the pro-impeachment side, a Carnival-esque spirit reigned, with demonstrators sipping beers while decked out in the yellow and green jersey of Brazil’s beloved national soccer team.

Both groups were much smaller than the crowds that turned out for the 17 April impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress.

A supporter of the government receives medical attention after breathing tear gas launched by police amid clashes outside the congress building in Brasilia.
A supporter of the government receives medical attention after breathing tear gas launched by police amid clashes outside the congress building in Brasilia. Photograph: Fernando Bizerra Jr./EPA

Get your snacks in: senate leader Renan Calheiros is saying the proceedings could continue until 5am local time (4am ET/9am BST/6pm AEST).

Senator Vanessa Grazziotin is speaking now. She has previously called for the impeachment process to be suspended.

Tonight she tells senators that voting for Rousseff’s removal would be a fraud against the laws of democracy:

“What hypocrisy, what lies!” she tweets, with a reference to Lava Jato, or Operation Carwash, the investigation into the Petrobras scandal that has embroiled many of Brazil’s politicians – including a number of those calling for Rousseff to go:

Grazziotin is greeted with hugs as she returns to her seat.

Senate speeches latest: we now have 25 senators who have declared themselves in favour of impeachment, and five against.

A reminder: a simple majority is enough to see Rousseff suspended. On a full complement of 81 senators, with all members present, that’s 41 votes needed to impeach.

But so far during this 10-hour+ session, the chamber has not had full attendance at any point.

Rousseff and Jaques Wagner, former defence minister, watch the crowds from inside the Planalto palace:

Brazilian newspaper O Globo reports that current vice-president (and presumptive president in the event of Rousseff’s impeachment) Michel Temer is pressing ahead with the assembling of his new government, with the appointment of a new attorney general, Fábio Medina Osório.

The current attorney general, José Eduardo Cardozo, is expected to leave with Rousseff.

China’s censors aren’t keen to share the news of the impeachment vote:

Hello, this is Claire Phipps picking up the live blog reins to take you through to the Senate vote in – I hope – a few hours’ time.

In the first 10 (10!) hours of this session, 30 senators had their say, fewer than half of those scheduled to speak. Senate leader Renan Calheiros has now pledged not to take a recess and push the proceeding through to a vote. But it looks as if it will be the early hours of Thursday morning, Brazil time, before the result is official.

Summary

Ten hours into Brazil’s Senate debate about ousting President Dilma Rousseff from office, the pro-impeachment forces look certain to win tonight’s vote. Rousseff stands accused of illegally using government funds to mask the true state of the Brazilian economy.

My colleague Claire Phipps in Sydney is going to take over our live coverage for the second half of this marathon debate and vote. Here’s where things stand at the moemnt

  • Nineteen senators have declared they will vote to impeach the president. Only four have said they will vote against the ouster. The Senate needs a simple majority to impeach: 41 of 81 senators with all members present, though the chamber has not had full attendance at any point today.
  • Brief clashes broke out between protesters and police outside the Senate in Brasilia, with police firing teargas into the crowd and protesters throwing rocks in return – it’s not clear how the altercation began. At least one person sought treatment from the gas.
  • Senate leader Renan Calheiros has declared he will not vote, although he is already referring to Rousseff in the past tense and to vice-president Michel Temer, a member of his party, as the next president.
  • Brazil’s supreme court rejected a last-minute appeal by Rousseff to halt the vote. She has scheduled a speech for 10am local time Thursday.
  • Senators defending Rousseff have denounced the impeachment fight as an attempted “coup”, a movement “born of hatred and revenge”, and an attempt to rewrite the election results that brought her to office.
  • Senators who want to put the president on trial have raised a variety of reasons for their votes. One compared her to gangrene, another blamed her for Brazil’s economic crisis, a third blamed her for turning a blind eye to corruption, and a fourth said said he believed a court which found evidence of a “crime of responsibility” during her first term.
  • Should the Senate vote to impeach, Rousseff will be suspended for six months. The Senate could also remove her from office permanently, but would need a two-thirds majority to do so. Vice-president Michel Temer stands ready to assume office, but he and several other leaders in the line of succession – including Rousseff’s accusers – could face criminal charges themselves for graft and corruption offenses.
  • And a historical note: only three of Brazil’s eight elected leaders since 1950 have managed to serve out their term. If suspended, Rousseff will join the list of presidents removed from office.

The Senate debate has little of the chaos of House’ vote last month, during which lawmakers pledged their decisions to family members, freemasons and the chief torturer of Brazil’s military dictatorship – under which Dilma Rousseff was herself tortured.

Instead the senators seem intent on turning the impeachment debate into something between a classroom and one very, very long advertisement for re-election. After each of the senators gets a turn (we’re about a third of the way through) there are speeches to sum up the pro- and anti-impeachment arguments. Then the Senate finally votes.

Three Brazils: red in support of the president against impeachment, yellow and green in support of her ouster, and a Congress whose senators, many of whom are accused of corruption, are debating criminal charges against the president.

The senators are still debating, and Senate leader Renan Calheiros maintains that everyone should have 15 minutes to speak, rather than five minutes as some senators suggest.

Yet he is also one of the few lawmakers in the room who is urging his peers to stay on some semblance of a schedule – he just threatened to suspend several lawmakers who wouldn’t stop talking or whose phones kept going off.

Jon Watts is still out with the crowd on the streets, where he’s met some of the people who were exposed to the teargas fired by police.

Neves expounds at length about how “the Workers’ Party is going back to ancient ways”, raising many of the arguments he made while campaigning against Rousseff in 2014. His vote should not be in doubt.

The president’s office has meanwhile said that Rousseff will speak to the press at 10am local time Thursday morning, not immediately after the vote as originally planned.

And speaking of the old …

The AP has been talking to some of the senators who’ve declared their vote – none are mincing words about their feelings.

“To improve the life of the nation we need to remove them[(Rousseff’s Workers’ Party] at this time,” Senator Magno Malta told a scrum of journalists outside the Senate floor. “We will start to breathe again and the doctor will say the nation has given signs of life and will be stable soon.”

“The great day has come” to “extract the nation from the claws of the Workers’ Party,” said Senator Ataides Oliveira, the fifth of 63 Senators slated to speak during the debate

Rousseff “is the one who is having to pay for everything,” said Senator Telmario Mota de Oliveira, who argued the country’s problems shouldn’t be all pinned on the president.

Aécio Neves, the man who Dilma Rousseff defeated in the 2014 presidential race and a leader of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, now has the podium. He’s tipped to take a position of power such as foreign minister in the hypothetical presidency of Michel Temer, the vice-president.

Back inside the Senate, the anti-Rousseff coalition inches toward the halfway mark of declared votes needed for impeachment.

Brazilian police have set up barricades and a line of officers outside the Senate in Brasilia, where Jon Watts saw brief clashes between officers and protesters. Inside Congress the senators have again come to order for debates. Jon reports from the streets:

Police just fired a few volleys of teargas at anti impeachment protesters outside the Senate. The protesters threw rocks and fireworks. Hard to say which side started. But seems to have calmed for the moment.

Couple of thousand people on this side of the “impeachment wall” as they call the metal barrier that separates the pro and anti gatherings.

Updated

Police fire teargas at protesters

My colleague Jon Watts is with the crowds outside Congress in Brasilia, where police have fired teargas canisters after supporters of the president threw a few fireworks, he reports.

The parliamentary watchdog newspaper Congresso em Foco has published a list of Senators who are under investigation or have had their cases archived by the Supreme Court. Alleged corruption does not discriminate by beliefs: according to the watchdog there are 24 active investigations for 81 senators, 14 of which involve the “Car Wash” bribery scandal of oil giant Petrobras.

Senators under investigation as of 25 April 2016:

Delcídio do Amaral (Workers’ Party, the leftist party of Rousseff)
Gleisi Hoffmann (Workers’ Party)
Humberto Costa (Workers’ Party)
Lindbergh Farias (Workers’ Party)

Aloysio Nunes (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a centrist party opposed to Rousseff)
Cássio Cunha Lima (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)

Benedito de Lira (Progressive Party, a center-right party)
Ciro Nogueira (Progressive Party)

Dário Berger (Brazilian Democratic Movement, a wide range of conservatives to populists and nationalists)
Edison Lobão (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)
Jader Barbalho (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)
Renan Calheiros (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)
Romero Jucá (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)
Simone Tebet (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)
Valdir Raupp (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party)

Eduardo Amorim (Social Christian Party)
Fernando Bezerra Coelho (Brazilian Socialist Party)
Fernando Collor (Brazilian Labor Party)
Gladson Cameli (Progressive Party)
Ivo Cassol (Progressive Party)
José Agripino (Democrats)
Sérgio Petecão (Social Democratic Party)
Vanessa Grazziotin (Communist Party of Brazil)
Wellington Fagundes (Party of the Republic)

Cases archived by the Supreme Court:

Antônio Anastasia (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
Flexa Ribeiro (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
Marta Suplicy (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
Paulo Bauer (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
Roberto Requião (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)

Ângela Portela (Workers’ Party)

Acir Gurgacz (Democratic Labor Party)
Telmário Mota (Democratic Labor Party)
Omar Aziz (Social Democratic Party)

Updated

Senate leader Renan Calheiros calls for a break in the floor speeches. The pro-impeachment forces have nearly half the votes – declared, at least – they would need to oust Dilma Rousseff from the presidency in a full Senate vote.

With all the senators present they would need 41 votes to impeach Rousseff and put her on trial for using government finances to mask woes in the economy.

Calheiros tells everyone to be back in less than an hour, in contrast to the +100-minute break they took for lunch.

Outside the Congress, protesters continue to gather near my colleague Ana Terra Athayde, who films a bit of anti-corruption dancing.

As twilight turns to night in Brasilia, protesters line up in yellow and green to show a “Wall of Shame” with their leaders’ faces on it to Ana Terra Athayde’s camera.

Rousseff has found another ally on the floor. Workers’ Party senator Jorge Viana Acre tells the chamber: “This impeachment throws the votes of millions of Brazilians in the trash!”

“We’re living in institutional anarchy in our country,” he adds – Rousseff’s Workers’ Party seems grateful to have someone’s defense to tweet out.

The tally declared on the floor is 17 for impeachment, three against. Senate president Renan Calheiros took a break to say that the impeachment is trending on Twitter.

Senator Agripino Maia is making a long and convoluted speech about state banks and his experiences with them, related to the impeachment vote in only a very roundabout way.

He is not helping anybody who wants to actually impeach or defend the president.

But he has given NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro an excuse to unearth these stats about Brazil’s Senate, which has not only just cut Maia’s microphone to get him to stop talking but is also composed of some very specific demographics.

Her source is a BBC Brasil analysis of the Brazilian Congress. Brazil is more than 50% black or mixed race, to give you a sense of how representative the Senate is of its constituents.

Updated

Impeachment forces have third of vote needed

Ângela Portela, of the president’s Workers’ Party, says she’ll vote against impeaching Dilma Rousseff. She’s only the second to declare herself with the president in the Senate today, making the declared tally, so far, 15 for impeachment and two against.

The Senate needs a simple majority of the senators present, meaning 41 votes if all 81 senators are present. Senate leader Renan Calheiros has said he will not vote to stay neutral. If not all the senators are present the tally necessary for impeachment is lower: there are 73 senators in the chamber at the moment, for instance, then only 38 senators need vote for impeachment.

The Senate’s official Twitter account has itself admitted it’s going to be a long night before the senators finish having their say.

“Calheiros just tried and dismally failed to get the schedule back on track by cutting down the length of the speeches,” my colleague Jon Watts reports from the chamber floor.

“He was quickly put in his place and now says he will give Senators’ their say in this historic session. Great news if you are one of the few dozen politician who are yet to speak. Awful for everyone else as we now face the prospect of a debate that could go on until breakfast time tomorrow.”

Updated

Senate leader Renan Calheiros has said he will not vote whether to impeach Dilma Rousseff, saying that he wants to stay neutral as the president of the chamber.

But he was already using the past tense when he spoke of the sitting president of the country, and started speaking in the future tense of vice-president Michel Temer, who is of the senator’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).

“Temer needs the backing of Congress to carry out deep reforms, above all reform of the political system, if he becomes president,” he told reporters between Senate sessions.

Reuters notes that Brazil’s glum economy appreciates the possibility that Temer could take power, “on hopes his team could cut a massive fiscal deficit and return the battered economy to growth”.

Renan Calheiros gives a thumbs up during a Senate debate on a vote to suspend Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Renan Calheiros gives a thumbs up during a Senate debate on a vote to suspend Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Photograph: Cadu Gomes/EPA

Two more say they’ll vote for impeachment. Senator Sergio Petecão admits: “I won’t say we should expect it to solve all the problems.”

Petecão is of the Social Democratic Party, which has taken many lawmakers who’ve left Brazil’s rightwing Democrats, and he was formerly of a center-nationalist party.

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Popular Socialist Cristovão Buarque also says he’s voting for impeachment. His decision has not made him popular among the leftists who continue to defend Rousseff, especially since Buarque was once of her party himself.

In between it all is Renan Calheiros, who variously chuckles at his peers, scolds them, and simply watches over it all in amusement. The LA Times’ Vincent Bevins has the simile to beat.

If you’re catching up … we’re now at 13 senators who’ve declared for impeachment, one in defense of Dilma Rousseff. The Senate needs a simple majority of present senators to impeach the president, which would be 41 with all 81 senators present.

The senators of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) have agreed to give up their speaking time, my colleague Jon Watts reports from the Senate floor.

There are six of them so that saves 90 minutes – but barring more sacrifices from dozens of other senators, we’re still on schedule to finish hours from now.

Meanwhile the leader of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, Humberto Costa, is paraphrasing Senator Motas defense of the president. “They want to change the results of the last election,” he says of her enemies in Congress.

But based on the senators who’ve spoken so far Rousseff appears to be in trouble.

Rousseff has found at least one friend in the Senate and a few outside it. Senator Telmário Mota took the podium to ask: “What country is this?”

“We want a country that respects the law and the constitution and democracy,” he said. “This impeachment was born of revenge, hatred and revenge.”

The newspaper Correio Braziliense points out via tweet that Mota’s question happens to invoke the Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana, whose third album was titled “What country is this?”

And outside, pro-Rousseff protesters are setting up for a show once the Senate finally gets round to voting.

Updated

Inside Congress, a football (soccer) star turned senator, Romário de Souza Faria, has taken the podium.

“It’s undeniable that the country is going through a very serious crisis,” he says. “The crisis has a political element, but it’s not limited to this.”

He says that senators have to take charge of the government and enact emergency measures. As for Dilma Rousseff, he says “From everything I’ve read, heard and understand, I have concluded that there’s evidence of a crime of responsibility by the president.”

He’s going to vote for impeachment.

Outside Congress, a small group of protesters circles for drums and a little half-hearted shuffle dance.

Senator compares Rousseff to gangrene

Senator Magno Malta is at the podium, the ninth senator of 68 who were slated to speak – Brazilian press are reporting that the Senate may skip some speeches to get to the actual vote.

Malta is not wasting his opportunity. He too is in favor of impeachment. He’s waving an accusatory finger at the Senate and shouting at his colleagues about the dire state of Brazil, comparing corruption to diseases: “like diabetics, we have to amputate the limb”.

He starts yelling about how Rousseff’s Workers’ Party is “against the family” and wants to legalize abortion. “My children educate me, not these people.”

He receives polite applause once the bell rings out his time on the floor.

Updated

Many Brazilians have blamed Rousseff for dragging the economy into the worst recession in decades, and her impeachment hinges on related charges: using government funds to hide signs of trouble.

Senators Lúcia Vânia and Zexe Perella have also brought up the economy: they’re the sixth and seventh senators to speak in favor of impeachment today.

But does the future really look brighter with any of Rousseff’s successors? Brian Winter, vice-president of the American Society/Council of the Americas, writes for Vox that whoever replaces Rousseff has more to do than rectify her mistakes.

Her disastrous handling of the government budget (and ensuing fudging of the numbers, for which she is facing impeachment), her refusal to engage in a new wave of economic reform, and her mismanagement of the corruption scandalat state-run oil company Petrobras have destroyed much of the goodwill and stability that previous governments in Brazil had painstakingly built over the past 20 years.

Vice-president Michel Termer would be “a clear upgrade” on economics, Winter continues.

Based on his probable picks for finance minister and other key cabinet positions, Temer will be much less likely than Rousseff to meddle in areas of the economy such as interest rates, or the rate of return for investors on infrastructure projects, that are best left to independent regulators or the private sector.

Temer may even take on longstanding obstacles to growth such as Brazil’s tax code (which the World Bank has called the world’s most complex) and the gaping hole in its pension system.

But Temer’s going to have to make unpopular decisions if he wants to improve the economy, Winter argues – and that’s assuming his own legal troubles do not torpedo his administration from the start.

Six senators have taken turns so far at the Senate podium (of a planned 68 ) to argue for and against impeachment. Most have spoken about the economic crisis – unemployment and inflation are hovering near 10% – and Rousseff’s handling of it.

Two senators asked to delay the proceedings in Rousseff’s favor before the formal turns at debate began, but they were overruled, and the supreme court later rejected Rousseff’s appeal to halt the vote.

All six senators at the podium have argued for impeachment. The most recent brought a chart.

Updated

The Senate is back at long last from its extended lunch break, with leader Renan Calheiro chatting idly before starting off the session to impeach the president.

“We can’t really rush history,” he says, per Folha’s Leandro Colon.

Rousseff ally all but surrenders

Humberto Costa, the leader of the Workers Party in the Senate, has all but admitted defeat for Dilma Rousseff, whose second term seems on the verge of an abrupt early end to the party’s hold of the presidency.

“There are no other paths for us but opposition,” he just said in a televised interview.

On his Twitter account, however, he continues to rail against what he sees as a flawed process. “It is a scandal, this process of impeachment,” he wrote in one tweet. “Full of irremediable vices. It is a typical constitutional coup, a civil military uprising.”

In another he wrote: “this impeachment process is clear: one side wants democracy, the other a coup.”

Rousseff will address Brazil after the Senate votes on her impeachment, perhaps reading the signs so far as a near certainty that Congress will put her on trial.

“With the confirmed exist of Dilma, the balance will be in 52 years only four presidents will have been directly elected,” Folha reporter Fabiano Misonnave tweets. “Of those half suffered impeachment.”

The senators take their time.

What would follow impeachment?

With few senators standing up for Rousseff so far – though we are only five speakers into a supposed 68 planned – impeachment and suspension are looking more and more likely. At the Senate in Brasilia my colleague Jon Watts runs through the possibilities of what would happen next.

If the suspension of Rousseff goes ahead, the presidential line of succession will have been decimated in the past week, with possibly more to come.

Normally, this is how it looks:

  • President
  • Vice President
  • Speaker of the Lower House
  • Leader of the Upper House
  • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

But here’s the situation today:

  • Almost suspended: President Dilma Rousseff will have to step aside if, as is almost certain, the Senate votes to put her on trial for “crimes of responsibility” as a result of alleged window dressing of government accounts.
Temer.
Temer. Photograph: Reuters
  • Accused and fined: Vice President Michel Temer will probably form a government tomorrow, but he is facing impeachment on the same charges as Rousseff. He has also been named in two plea bargains in the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) investigation, making him one of the major figures in the bribery scandal at the state-run oil company Petrobras.
  • Suspended: House Speaker Eduardo Cunha was stripped of his position last week by the supreme court because he used his powers to obstruct the Lava Jato investigation. He also faces charges of bribery and perjury. His replacement, interim speaker Waldir Maranhão is also under investigation for receiving bribes, and announced on Wednesday that he would soon step aside. Many constitutional experts argue an interim speaker cannot be considered in the line of succession. Cunha and Temer have become two of Rousseff’s greatest opponents in the government.
Cunha.
Cunha. Photograph: AP
  • Accused: The head of the Senate and the man overseeing today’s impeachment, Renan Calheiros, is the subject of 11 criminal probes, nine of which are related to Lava Jato.
  • Viable but near term’s end: The supreme court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski is not under investigation but his mandate finishes in September, when he is due to be replaced by Carmen Lucia.

In conclusion: two of the five are likely to be suspended by tomorrow, another two are under investigation, and the final potential successor is an unelected judge who is about to be replaced. I’d guess the odds on Lucia, who is not even in the frame right now, becoming president by the end of the year might be shorter than those last August for Leicester winning the Premiership.

Updated

Supreme court rejects Rousseff appeal

Brazil’s supreme court has rejected her last minute appeal to stop the impeachment vote. The president’s senatorial allies had argued this morning that the Senate should at least wait until the supreme court had ruled on the appeal, which was likely Rousseff’s last opportunity to prevent an ouster.

Updated

Senator Ataides Oliveira, the last speaker before the Senate ended its first session, harkened back to the antics of the House of Deputies when it was his turn at the podium. He called for impeachment with arms waving, fists clenched and exhortations shouted to oust Rousseff from office.

Compared to the rambunctious, overwhelming vote to impeach Dilma Rousseff in the House last month, the mood is considerably more sombre in the Senate, my colleague Jon Watts reports from the floor of the chamber.

“All the people here are broken hearted. We don’t want this, but it is unavaoidable. Brazil has come to a stop since last year,” claimed Senator Marcelo Crivella, who, outside of standing for the Brazilian Republican Party is also a gospel singer and bishop of the evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

“We all recognise that [Rousseff] has done a good job during her life for the democracy of Brazil.”

Despite these respectful words, Crivella, who was once allied with her Workers Party government, said that he would vote for impeaching the president because the country is mired in crisis and needs a change of economic policy.

On the opposite side of the debate is Venessa Grazziotin, a senator from the Communist Party who is opposed to the suspension of the president.

“This is the saddest day in the history of our young democracy,” she told the Guardian. “This isn’t a valid constitutional process, it is a coup that goes against the opinion of the majority in the 2014 election.”

She had no hope that Rousseff might escape suspension, but the senator said the battle was not over. She hopes that in the coming months, Brazilians will realise they have been robbed of their rights by removing the president. “If they suspend her today, I’ll go to the streets to demand new elections,” Grazziotin said.

The views of just two senators are obviously not representative of the entire chamber, but there does seem to be an effort to treat the moment with gravitas. That is partly what you would expect from the upper house – but it may also be because the boisterous and bizarre scenes of last month’s House vote, which saw deputies behaving in a way that shamed many Brazilians and led to deeply critical coverage overseas.

Updated

Watchdog group Aos Fatos notes that 14 lawmakers are under investigation for corruption and graft in the Petrobras scandal, in which the state-run oil giant, businesses and lawmakers are accused of passing around $2bn worth of bribes for contracts.

Journalist Rachel Glickhouse translates the linked tweet.

Senator Ana Amélia Lemos has invoked Pope Francis in her time on the floor, quoting him: “I hope that Brazil will follow the path of harmony and peace.” Then she pulls out a copy of the Brazilian constitution as a prop.

Lemos supports impeachment, and has fought back adamantly against critics and Rousseff supporters who say impeachment is a “coup”.

While Brazilian newspapers have found that around 50 senators plan to vote for a trial, it’s not clear that Dilma Rousseff’s enemies have enough votes to bar her from office, the AP reports.

A survey by Folha of Sao Paulo suggests there are only 41 senators willing to remove her permanently, 13 fewer than needed. The House voted 367-137 last month in favor of impeachment.

“Dilma will be impeached for a variety of reasons,” said Marcos Troyjo, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “And the possibility of her coming back is zero.”

Rousseff herself hasn’t been implicated in the graft and corruption scandals that have swept up many members of her party – and of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration. Rousseff was Lula’s chief of staff and minister of energy – someone who should have known about the bribes and corruption that had taken hold of Brazil’s state-run oil giant, Petrobras.

“The people involved abused and took advantage of the opportunity to steal money in an absurd way,” said Tiago Gomes da Silva, a 33-year-old standing in line at an unemployment office in Rio de Janeiro. “This had to come to an end. And the actual government is directly linked to this.”

Brazil’s economy has also staggered into its worst recession in decades, in large part due to the plummeting prices of commodities and petroleum over the last few years. Inflation and unemployment are hovering around 10%, and in her second term Rousseff has enjoyed none of the oil and mining boom that so profited Lula at the polls. From the AP:

“The problem in Brazil was the inflation,” Carlos Antonio Porto Goncalves, economics professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said of Rousseff’s first years as president. “And the government, to fight inflation, raised interest rates to extremely high levels so demand decreased, and the recession came.”

With all of this is a growing perception that Rousseff doesn’t have the casual charisma of many senators, which has divided many Brazilians into camps that see her as more honest than her peers or too unwilling to make deals.

“She is a woman with a knife in her boot,” said Alexandre Barros, a political consultant in Brasilia, using a popular phrase in Portuguese to describe tough women. “But she is not a politician.”

A protester has shown up at Congress wearing a word that needs no translation. He points out that vice-president Michel Temer has also been found to have broken the law.

Impeach the lot of them, he says. Temer could very well have an abbreviated term – as could other lawmakers accused of corruption, taking bribes and other crimes.

Rousseff has her supporters too, though. My colleague Ana Terra Athayde meets one outside Congress.

Updated

Senate president Renan Calheiro has denied requests by Gleisi Hoffmann and Vanessa Grazziotin to delay the impeachment until the supreme court decides the president’s appeal over it.

On what could be the last morning of her presidency, Dilma Rousseff went for a stroll … with what appear to be rheas.

Updated

Jota notes that there are 56 senators currently holding the quorum, though there are 81 senators in all. To impeach Rousseff her enemies need a simple majority of the senators present, not necessarily 41 needed with a full session. Voting’s expected to begin this evening.

Vice-president Michel Temer, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, is waiting in the wings today to take over from Dilma Rousseff should she be impeached.

Rousseff has declared her running-mate and former ally a “usurper”, but his party is feeling good. They’re calling today the “day of hope”.

A year ago Temer was singing (or at least tweeting) a different tune: “Impeachment is unthinkable, would create an institutional crisis. There is no judicial or political basis for it.”

Temer is not free of the scandals entangling his new and old allies. He was fined last week for violating campaign finance limits, and although he can assume the presidency if Rousseff is ousted, he may be barred from running for office for years.

Updated

Senator Gleisi Hoffmann has asked the Senate president to postpone the vote on impeachment until the supreme court has decided on Rousseff’s appeal against the legality of the procedure.

Hoffmann was Rousseff’s chief of staff during her first term, from 2011-2014.

The Senate session is finally underway, with the chamber’s president Renan Calheiro leading off with a long speech. There’s a steady din of senators chattering behind him. Portuguese speakers can follow along on Senate TV live here.

My colleague Jon Watts is in the room, with God himself, according to Calheiro.

The men and women of Brazil’s congress are a motley lot: several of their leaders are themselves accused of corruption, including Senate president Renan Calheiro.

The Economist has compiled many of the strange reasons that federal deputies have given for their votes for and against impeachment so far, with translations.

  • For the foundations of Christianity
  • For the Masons of Brazil
  • For rural producers, because if they don’t plant there will be neither lunch nor dinner
  • Because of the proposal that children can have sex-change procedures [while still] in school
  • For my mother Lucimar
  • For charismatic renewal
  • For the love of this country
  • For an end to the Petrobras scandal and those who profited from it
  • For Campo Grande [the state capital of Mato Grosso do Sul], the loveliest brunette of Brazil
  • For all the insurance brokers
  • For peace in Jerusalem
  • For the sector that generates wealth: agribusiness
  • For my son Breno and my beloved military police of São Paulo
  • So that we don’t become Reds like in Venezuela and North Korea
  • For my wife and my daughter, who are my principal electorate
  • In order that no government stands against the nation of Israel
  • For my wife Mariana and daughter little Mariana
  • For the truckers
  • For free men and morality
  • I forgot to mention my son. For you, Paulo Henrique! Kiss!

You can read the full list (itself only a selection) here.

Senate president Renana Calheiro is talking to the press in Brasilia, and said that the first session has already been delayed 45 minutes. Live looks at the Senate show around half of the senators haven’t arrived on time for one of the most consequential votes in modern Brazilian history.

Updated

My colleagues Jon Watts and Ana Athayde are in Brasilia helping cover the vote, and have sent along a quick guide of what we can expect from the Senate today.

  • The Senate had been scheduled to begin at 9am local time, but is already running late. (Brasilia is an hour ahead of New York, and four behind London). The first session was set to last until about noon local time.
  • The second session is scheduled for 1pm-6pm local, and a third session from 7pm-until the end of proceedings.
  • Each of the 81 senators will have 15 minutes to speak, meaning the session could, in theory, last over 20 hours.
  • The latest survey by Grupo Folha, one of Brazil’s largest media companies, found that 50 senators are in favor of impeachment, 20 against it, and 11 undecided.
  • And Dilma Rousseff has cleared out her office, Reuters reports, though she has kept up public appearances and meetings as scheduled. Recently asked about her plans, she said: “What else would I do? Stop governing? I’m still president.”

Updated

Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, who faces being forced out of office by an unruly Congress that has accused her of illegally manipulating government accounts.

Rousseff’s nemesis in the affair is Eduardo Cunha, the machiavellian speaker of the House who is himself accused of corruption and has been suspended from his post. Similarly tangled up in the scandal are the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his chief of staff (allies of Rousseff), vice-president Michel Temer, who was last week fined for violating campaign law, and two more enemies of the president. Senate president Renan Calheiros is being investigated in a bribery investigation involving Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, and opposition leader Aécio Neves has been criticzed for his family’s secret bank account in Lichtenstein.

It’s been chaotic. Protesters have taken to the streets for and against Rousseff, and even the lawmakers who’ve threatened her for months can’t seem to organize. On Monday the acting speaker of the House annulled the impeachment vote, claiming irregularities in the process, and was promptly challenged by senior senators. On Tuesday he changed his mind, clearing the way for an impeachment vote all over again.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment

At the center of the struggle is Rousseff herself, a former Marxist guerrilla who was jailed and tortured in the 1970s and who, only a year and a half ago, won re-election in one of the nation’s largest democracies. Though she had managed to escape the corruption scandals that have plagued other lawmakers and her allies for years, a federal court last year said one of her economic measures in 2014 – taking loans from public banks to mask the economy’s troubles – was illegal.

If a simple majority of the 81 senators vote to impeach – 41 is the magic number – Rousseff will be suspended for 180 days while Congress weighs whether to remove her from office for good. If they do so, Temer will likely take over in her stead. Rousseff has vowed to fight until the end, and dubbed him a “usurper”.

In the background of the political drama are very real woes. Brazil’s economy is in its worst recession in a quarter of a century, low oil prices have deflated one of its most important exports, and there are huge inequalities of wealth. The nation is also the epicenter of the Zika virus crisis, and set to host the hugely expensive Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, a city as famous for its crime and favelas as its culture and beauty.

Updated

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