Brazil: Workers' Party talks of mounting strong opposition to new government

In the Senate session to decide whether President Dilma Rousseff should be placed on trial, opposition Senator Ronaldo Caiado came out against the economic policy implemented in the PT's administration, which, he argues, deprives Brazilians of their jobs, and “scorns and disrespects the public opinion.”

“We're going to show here the true coup mounted by the PT administration, which started with Lula and was moved forward by Dilma,” said the head of the Democrats' party. The senator said that the biggest coup is the total of 11 million jobless Brazilians.

In Caiado's view, the government lied during its electoral campaign in 2014. He mentioned the surge in energy and gas costs, as well as the 303 thousand companies that were forced to close their doors, and the decline in the country's gross domestic product in 2015 and 2016.

While listing his reasons for backing Rousseff's ouster, Caiado condemned the reduction in the investment in social programs, and noted that Petrobras has gone from the fourth biggest company in the world to the globe's biggest firm in debt. “We're cutting short a damaging cycle,” he said.

PT pledges solid opposition to Temer administration

On the other hand, lawmakers on Rousseff's side have already started devising their strategies as opposition, in case the president is forced to step aside and vice-President Michel Temer becomes acting president. They pledged to file more appeals with the Supreme Court, even though Justice Teori Zavascki rejected the request by Rousseff's defense to stop the impeachment process in the Senate.

“We'll deliberate and appeal with the Supreme Court yet again, as we believe we still have conditions to reverse this situation,” said PT Senator Lindberg Farias, arguing that former lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha “misused his powers.”

“Now is the time to prepare and mount a fierce opposition for the upcoming days—in case the result in the Senate is confirmed—especially because we don't acknowledge Temer's post as president. It's a government that's come as the result of a coup, and we will not tolerate his stripping away the rights of workers with this package, set to be introduced to obliterate the legacy of Lula, Ulysses Guimarães, and Getúlio Vargas,” the senator added.

Senator Humberto Costa, also a member of the PT, said that, should Rousseff be removed from office, there will be no space for the PT outside the opposition. “It'll be a fierce opposition, which should relentlessly denounce the coup that's being mounted against democracy in Brazil,” he maintained, adding that this opposition “will not repeat what the current opposition did to us with their 'the worse the better' scheme.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira