Today, the Brazilian Senate voted in favour of putting President Dilma Rousseff on trial for breaking budget laws by 55 votes to 22.
Rousseff has been accused of illegally manipulating finances to hide a growing public deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014. Brazil’s Senate is debating whether President Dilma Rousseff should face a full impeachment trial which will be the country’s first impeachment in 24 years.
The majority of the senators have already said they will vote against the president and if this is confirmed in a vote to be held later, Ms Rousseff will be automatically suspended from office.
According to reports, Rousseff will have to step aside for at least six months while she is tried in the upper house for allegedly manipulating government accounts ahead of the next election.
She however made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the proceedings, but the move was rejected. Rousseff initially enjoyed some of the highest ratings of any leader in the world when she first came into power in 2010.
Many are uncomfortable about how she is being pushed aside. The concern is that the final decision is likely to be more political than legal as her judges will be senators, many of whom are accused of more serious crimes.
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