Dilma Van Roussef is a former Brazilian president who has been suspended from impeachment. This event caused a significant global resonance, because in such an extraordinary way the leader of one of the leading world powers was removed. What did D. Rousseff do this? Impeachment in Brazil, as well as a short biography of this political activist, will be the subject of our study.
Youth
Dilma Rousseff (Dilma Vana Rousseff), was born in December 1947 in the large Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. Her father is Bulgarian emigrant Pyotr Rusev, who was forced to flee his native country, as he was a member of the Communist Party persecuted there. In Brazil, he married local native Dilme Jean Coimbra Silva. It was from this marriage that Dilma Van was born. In addition to her, the family had two more children - Igor and Jean Lucia.
Dilma, like her father, shared leftist ideas. At twenty, she was an activist of the Socialist Party, adhering to her most radical wing, which called for an armed struggle against the dictatorship that was established at that time in Brazil. Radicalism and participation in armed rebel groups led to the arrest of the rebel. After that, at a military court, the girl was read out what they accused of. Dilma Rousseff was tortured and only left the prison in 1972.
After leaving prison, Dilma graduated and gave birth to a daughter. She again took part in the left movement, but this time using only legal methods. Dilma Rousseff became one of those who stood at the origins of the creation of the Democratic Labor Party, which arose in 1979.
In big politics
After Dilma Rousseff worked as treasurer in the city government of Porto Alegre, and then headed one non-governmental fund, she decided to go into big politics. To this end, in the late 90s, Rusef joined the Workers' Party, which was distinguished by more radical ideas than the Democratic Labor Party.
To a large extent, it was thanks to the energy program that Dilma prepared that in 2003, the representative of the Workers Party, Luis da Silva, became president. It was D. Rousseff who became the Minister of Energy under him. Impeachment did not threaten this president, moreover, he was re-elected to this post in 2006, and Dilma became the head of his administration.
Presidential election
In 2010, Dilma Rousseff herself runs for president. During the nomination, she was supported by the current leader of Brazil - Luis da Silva. In her election program, Dilma Rousseff put forward proposals for political and agrarian reform. She supported homosexual marriages, but opposed the legalization of soft drugs and the death penalty.
In the first round of the election race, held in October 2010, Dilma Rousseff showed excellent results, taking first place with almost 47% of the vote. In order to become president without a second round, she lacked just a little more than 3% of the vote. Nevertheless, in the second round, gaining about 56% of the vote, confidently ahead of Jose Serra - representative of the Social Democratic Party Dilma Rousseff. The impeachment that will happen to her in the future, then no one could even imagine, because she became the first woman in the presidency in the history of Brazilian statehood.
Presidency
The 36th president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, after she began to fulfill her immediate responsibilities, met a number of political and economic challenges in the country, which she tried to cope with as much as possible. How much it turned out for her is rather difficult to judge. Whatever it was, but at the next presidential election held in the fall of 2014, the people again chose Dilma.
True, this time she did not retain the upper hand so convincingly as in the previous elections. In the first round, 41.6% of voters voted for Rousseff, and only 51.6% in the second round, which allowed her to bypass Aesio Nevis, the representative of the Social Democratic Party, with a minimum margin and secure a second presidency.
Suspicions of corruption
This time, Dilma Rousseff could not rule the country so calmly. Impeachment was the result of successive events, which we will discuss below. True, the beginning of this story should be sought back during the presidency of the previous leader of the country - Luis da Silva.
Under him, a corruption scheme was created, according to which construction companies, in order to be selected to carry out various work carried out by order of a large state oil company Petrobras, were forced to pay kickbacks. The amount of kickbacks went to the development of the Workers Party, as well as to the personal needs of its elite, including Luis da Silva.
These data became known from an investigation launched in 2014. Dilma Rousseff was not just one of the leaders of the Workers' Party, but also served as chairman of the board of directors of this oil company from 2003 to 2010. At the same time, she constantly denied that she knew at least something about the corruption schemes described above. But how honest was D. Rousseff? Impeachment was just around the corner.
Beginning of the impeachment procedure
On top of that, Dilma Rousseff in the fall of 2015 was accused of using administrative levers, financial fraud and violation of tax laws during the 2014 elections, which ensured her victory.
Clouds hung over D. Rousseff's head. The impeachment was initiated by the opposition and launched in parliament in December 2015.
Further development of the scandal
Dilma Rousseff was not afraid of the accusations. In March 2016, she appointed former President Luis da Silva, who was the main person involved in the corruption scandal, the head of her administration. According to Brazilian law, the person holding this position was inviolable, that is, in fact, da Silva became inaccessible to the investigating authorities and the court. It bore the kind of challenge that D. Rousseff posed to parliament and the opposition. Impeachment has become one of the consequences of such self-confident actions. Although, according to another version, defending da Silva, she defended herself in this way, because during the inquiry of the investigating authorities, the former president could also give information about Rusef’s involvement in corruption frauds.
Naturally, the appointment of da Silva was perceived as an attempt to protect him. This provoked a million-strong rally of opposition forces and the population supporting the opposition and opposing corruption. A federal judge issued a special ruling that suspended the order to appoint da Silva as head of the presidential administration, arguing that the appointment hinders the execution of justice.
Completion of the impeachment process
In April 2016, the lower house of the Brazilian parliament voted to resign. This decision gained more than two-thirds of the vote, as required by law. After that, the impeachment case was referred to the Senate for final approval.
In May 2016, senators also voted for the resignation of Rusef. The votes were distributed in a ratio of 55 to 22. This meant that Dilma was suspended from her duties for 180 days. After this period, taking into account the newly identified circumstances, the Senate had to make a final and irrevocable decision. Vice President Michel Temer became the interim head of state.
At the end of August 2016, the Senate again voted for the resignation of Dilma Rousseff with two-thirds of the vote. Thus, the impeachment procedure was completely completed.
Reasons for removal from power
The main reason for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff was the misuse of public funds in his favor during the campaign for the presidency in 2014.
The second main reason for the resignation was that Rusef was implicated in the corruption scheme of the former president of the country. Even if she did not actually know about her, then as the head of the company, which was directly involved in illegal actions, she had to be aware of what was happening around her managed facility.
In addition, a bad joke with Dilma was played by an attempt to defend da Silva.
And of course, one of the reasons for impeachment was the opposition’s desire to remove the current president. But this is the desire of the opposition in almost any country, and such forces can realize it only if there is a good reason. It should be noted that through her actions Dilma Rousseff gave all the cards to the opponents in her hands.
