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Brazilian Opposition Steps Up Impeachment Drive Against Dilma Rousseff

Oct. 7, 2015 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Brazil’s Electoral Court (TSE) took the unprecedented action, in a 5-2 vote, to begin an investigation of whether President Dilma Rousseff illegally financed her re-election campaign last year. The court’s action came in response to corruption charges against the President by the opposition PSDB, whose London-controlled pretty boy, Aecio Neves, narrowly lost last year’s election to Rousseff.

Aloizio Mercadante, a close adviser and confidante of Rousseff’s who was just relieved of his post as her chief of staff, charged today that the opposition was "shamelessly threatening a coup," not having figured out "that they lost last year’s election," O Globo reported. "Any coup-mongering is lethal for Brazil," he warned.

Should the seven-person TSE find that Dilma and Vice President Michel Temer "abused their power" and committed fraud by taking money from companies involved in the (trumped-up) Petrobras scandal, as the PSDB charges, it could declare her Presidency "illegitimate" and call for new elections. British news service Reuters crowed Oct. 6 that the investigation "could fuel opposition attempts to impeach Rousseff in Congress."

But there are important legal questions being raised as to whether the TSE even has the authority to determine the President’s legitimacy. According to Brasil247 today, Dalmo de Abreu Dallari, one of Brazil’s top legal experts, explained that Article 85 of the federal Constitution clearly states that the TSE does not have the authority to put an end to a President’s term in office.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo played down the TSE’s action as

"meaning absolutely nothing in legal terms... I would say, it’s a rather unoriginal measure, but opposition sectors are trying to give it a dimension which, evidently, it doesn’t possess."

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