Brazil's president says she will fight impeachment until the end

President Dilma Rousseff said today (May 6) that she will fight the impeachment proceedings against her, under deliberation at the Senate. "I confirm my willingness to resist. I will resist until the last day," she reported during a ceremony for signing contracts for the construction of 25,000 low-cost housing of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida affordable housing program, at Palácio do Planalto, the presidential office.

Deadlines for a possible ousting of President Dilma Rousseff from her role as president begin to run today (May 6), when the Senate's Special Committee on Impeachment backed Senator Antônio Anastasia's recommendation in favor of the president's impeachment.

"History will show who is who in this process. For that reason, they always wanted me to resign. I make many people uncomfortable. First, because I am the elected president; second, because I have committed no crime; thirdly, because if I resign, I will abandon and bury the living proof of a coup without any legal basis that aims to undermine the achievements of the last 13 years," added Rousseff.

For the president, an "impeachment disguised" indirect election is under way.  "My process is so violent that the coup needed to be mounted by a person devoid of moral and ethical principles, accused of money laundering and of failing to declare foreign bank accounts," she said. The president was referring to Eduardo Cunha, who was suspended from office as the speaker of the lower house by the Supreme Court, based on the allegations mentioned by the president.

Rousseff reaffirmed that Cunha accepted the impeachment proceedings against her because lower house members of the ruling Workers' Party have not backed Cunha for casting the necessary votes to prevent the initiation of an investigation against him at the Chamber of Deputies' Ethics Council, which has been under deliberation for six months.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta