Rousseff discusses defense in impeachment case with ex-president Lula

President Dilma Rousseff and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met in Brasília on Thursday (Apr. 28) to discuss strategies in addressing the impeachment proceedings that will be tried by the Senate in the coming weeks.

On Friday (29), the Senate's Special Committee on Impeachment will hear the president's defense, which will be argued by the Ministers of Finance, Nelson Barbosa; and Agriculture, Kátia Abreu, and the Attorney-General, José Eduardo Cardozo.

Barbosa and Cardozo attended the meeting with the president at Alvorada palace, the presidential residence, along with the ministers of the Government Secretariat, Ricardo Berzoini; and the head of the presidential office, Jaques Wagner, who was carrying a letter he received from a group of senators with a proposal to call an election this year in order to choose a president and vice-president to serve the remainder of her term until 2018.

Demonstrations against impeachment are set to take place in several Brazilian cities in the coming days, and Lula is trying to persuade Rousseff to attend one of these events in São Paulo on Sunday (May 1st).

Translated by Mayra Borges