Rousseff says Michel Temer had supporting role in impeachment

Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff said the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, had the main role, and Interim President Michel Temer, a supporting role in the proceeding that could lead to her ouster and an eight-year ban from political office. She referred to sections of a wiretapped conversation between a former CEO of Petrobras subsidiary Transpetro, Sérgio Machado, arrested as part of the Petrobras scandal, and Senator Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), in which they discussed the political scenario and her removal from office. In the recording, Jucá said Temer “is” Cunha. For Rousseff, he meant to say that “Michel Temer is among Deputy Eduardo Cunha's [political] group. That was the process that began perhaps at the end of my [first] term, but gained momentum in my second term,” she said.

Progressive centrism

According to Rousseff, Brazil traditionally had a centrist political group with democratic and progressive leanings, one that provided governance amid the various political forces, and the PMDB party was the embodiment of that group. She said the party played a “crucial role in enabling Brazil's democratic advancement, but also ensuring stable governance in Brazil.”

Rousseff noted that, since the end of her first term as president, with Eduardo Cunha's election as lower house speaker, the PMDB—which counts Cunha and Temer among its members—began to shift toward conservatism. From that point, she said, democratic centrism changed into a coup-backing, conspiratorial form of centrism. “This [impeachment] process has a leader, and I believe Mr. Michel Temer has a supporting role, whereas Mr. Eduardo Cunha is the leader,” she said.

The suspended president also explained what led her to choose Michel Temer as her running mate: “We thought he was part of this change-driving, democratic center, we believed he represented what was best about the PMDB,” she said.

Cunha's response

As he heard of Rousseff's statements, Eduardo Cunha issued a statement saying she was lying and dared her point out one proposal tabled by her administration that was not put to vote by the Chamber of Deputies while he was the speaker.

“In 2015, 28 temporary presidential decrees, six bills tabled by the government, including one to repatriate [money from illegal offshore banking], as well as more than 30 international agreements and dozens of other proposals, which makes 2015 a record year for bills discussed,” the statement read.

Translated by Mayra Borges