“I will not resign,” Brazil president says

In a statement made Thursday (May 18), Brazil President Michel Temer said he will not resign from office, and demanded a quick probe into the testimonies in which he is named. “I will not resign. I repeat I will not resign,” he said during an address at the Planalto presidential palace.

“I know what I did and I know of the correction of what I did, and I demand a thorough and swift investigation for clarifications to the Brazilian people. This doubt-ridden situation must not linger for long,” Temer said in his speech.

It was the president's first address after a news story was published by newspaper O Globo in which Temer is mentioned. The article says that, during a meeting recorded on audio by executive Joesley Batista, the president suggested that monthly payments to former lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha and currency dealer Lúcio Funaro not to be interrupted, in exchange for their silence. Cunha is in jail in Curitiba.

Today, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin accepted the statements of brothers Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista, owners of the meatpacking giant JBS, made under a plea bargain forged with federal prosecutors. An inquiry was opened to investigate Michel Temer.

The probe by the Supreme Court, Temer said, will lead to all clarifications. The president added that he has never allowed any one to use his name untruthfully. “I will prove at the Supreme Court I have no involvement in these facts,” he said.

In his address, Temer said his administration “experienced its best and its worst moments this week.” “Indicators showing the fall in the inflation and the figures on the recovery of economic growth and the generation of employment brought the hope for better days,” he said at the beginning of his speech.

Temer said he had requested the court to provide to him all recordings used in the plea bargain statement. “I would like to stress that I am only speaking now because the facts took place yesterday (17), and because I tried first to become acquainted with the contents of the recordings in which my name is mentioned. I requested the court to give me access to these documents, which has not been granted thus far.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira