Rousseff calls protests legitimate but rejects impeachment
President Dilma Rousseff -
President Dilma Rousseff said she regards as an integral part of democracy for people to demonstrate as they did against her and her government, banging cooking pots and panels and sounding car horns in several capital cities across the country on Sunday (Mar. 8), during her address broadcast on national radio and television. However, the president pointed out there is no reason to use these demonstrations to call for her impeachment.
“Here [in Brazil], people are free to demonstrate. I come from a time when demonstrators ended up in jail and could even be tortured or killed. Now as a democracy we must accept demonstrations as a natural part of it. But violence is unacceptable,” the president told reporters.
Rousseff went on to say there is no such a thing as a third round of election in the country. “There's no way we shouldn't play by the rules of the democratic game in Brazil. The election is over, there was a first round and then a runoff. A third round of voting can't take place unless you want a breakdown of democracy. (And) I believe Brazilian society won't accept a breakdown of democracy,” she said.
Finally, the president said that whoever calls a protest can organize them in any way they want to. “It [the protest] will look like its organizer. But [the demonstration] doesn't mean in itself that any demands that break with democracy are legal or legitimate.”
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Rousseff calls protests legitimate but rejects impeachment
