Ex-President Cardoso says there are grounds for impeaching Rousseff
“Repeatedly violating the Fiscal Accountability Act for political benefit—because fiscal maneuvering was used to make more resources available to be spent on social policy in an election year—is enough ground,” Cardoso said. 
Leading members of PSDB, the main opposition party in Brazil, met in Brasília for about one hour on Thursday evening (Dec. 10). Senator Aécio Neves, national chair of the party, former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, were among those present at the meeting. According to FHC, as the former president is known, there are sufficient grounds to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.
“Repeatedly violating the Fiscal Accountability Act for political benefit—because fiscal maneuvering was used to make more resources available to be spent on social policy in an election year—is enough ground,” Cardoso said. He views impeachment as both a legal and a political process and understands that a president can only be removed from power in the midst of her tenure if there's a suitable “political environment”.
“If such a political environment comes about, there will be grounds for impeachment. But if it doesn't, no grounds can justify ousting a president who was elected, who was chosen by voters. It's not a trivial process. It seems to me that the current environment is one of a gridlocked government. And a country like Brazil, with so many challenges lying ahead, can't get stuck waiting on things to just work themselves out. There has to be political action,” the former president said.
Senator Aécio Neves, the runner-up in the latest presidential election, described the meeting as an occasion to “tune up the orchestra” around the impeachment talks. “We'll be discussing more and increasingly converging on that,” he said. In his opinion, the president must “formally and definitively stand up to the charges she's facing.”
The senator urged “serenity” at this point, but said there is legal justification for the impeachment case to be tried in Congress. “There is basis for this petition to be put to a vote and we need serenity to discuss it.” Neves stressed that Rousseff “should be given every opportunity to defend herself,” but added there is a “convergent feeling” among PSDB members that there is reason to remove her from office.
Alckmin criticized the government's and its allies' recurring claims that the impeachment move is a coup plot. “There are provisions for impeachment in the Constitution, and the Constitution does not support coups.”
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Ex-President Cardoso says there are grounds for impeaching Rousseff
