BRASILIA, Brazil—For the second time in under a quarter century, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies voted to open impeachment proceedings against a democratically elected leader, dealing a devastating blow to President Dilma Rousseff, whose left-leaning Workers’ Party came to power 13 year ago on the promise of improving the lot of the poor.
The 367-137 vote late Sunday in favor of impeachment was well over the 342 votes needed for the proceedings to move ahead to the Senate, where a majority vote will determine whether Rousseff is put on trial and suspended while Vice President Michel Temer temporarily takes over. The exact date of the Senate vote is not known, but it’s widely expected by the middle of next month.
The vote in the lower house sparked elation among many Brazilians, who hold Rousseff responsible for everything from the devastating recession to chronic high taxes and poor public services. At the same time, a broad swath of the population was deeply upset by the results, which many decried as anti-democratic and worrisome.
“I’m happy because I think Dilma had to go, but I’m also both sad that it came to this and also really worried that the next president could be even worse,” said Patricia Santos, a 52-year-old small business owner who was among an estimated nearly 60,000 pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators who outside Congress. “I quiver to think what awaits us next.”
While Rouseeff herself didn’t react to the results, her party’s leader in the lower house, Jose Guimaraes, acknowledged the battle had been lost but insisted the war was just beginning.
