Brazil President Dilma Rousseff's Fight Against Impeachment Meets Setbacks

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, suffered two setbacks on Friday in her fight against impeachment, as a minister from her main coalition ally resigned and the supreme court quashed appeals from supporters seeking to stop the impeachment process.

The reversals do not end Rousseff’s chances of stopping impeachment proceedings, but they show the supreme court and even coalition partners are willing to let the process play out and even strategise for what may follow.

The aviation minister, Eliseu Padilha, an ally of the vice-president, Michel Temer, and part of the fractious party that is Rousseff’s main coalition partner, submitted his resignation on Friday, according to two sources within the Brazilian Democratic Movement party, or PMDB.

Six PMDB ministers remain in Rousseff’s cabinet, including the health minister, Marcelo Castro, who said his center-right party would back the president on the lower house committee that will rule on whether there are grounds to proceed with her impeachment. That could change if Padilha’s departure sets off a PMDB exodus from the Rousseff administration.

The supreme court turned back appeals from Rousseff’s allies to block the impeachment proceedings, including one filed by congressmen from her Workers’ party.

The impeachment process was launched this week against Rousseff by opposition politicians for accounting moves that a congressional auditor said broke public finance laws.

Political wrangling over impeachment is likely to drag on for at least six months at a time when the government faces legislative gridlock, the deepest recession in three decades and a historic corruption scandal.