Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office Wednesday after the Senate voted 61-20 in favor of the removal. The Senate found her guilty of breaking budgetary laws. Michel Temer, who has served as Acting President since the Senate began the impeachment process in May, will now serve as President for the remainder of her term.
The next presidential election is scheduled for 2018. While Rousseff was removed from the Presidency, she could run again in 2018. A motion to prohibit her from running failed. Rousseff won re-election in 2014, but it was a tight election and it went to a run-off that Rousseff won with 51.64%.
Rousseff earlier in the week maintained her innocence and highlighted that she was “faithful to my commitment to the nation.”
Earlier in the year, Rousseff had said, “When Brazil or when a president is impeached for a crime that they have not committed, the name we have for this in democracy — it’s not an impeachment, it is a coup” in response to the Senate beginning the impeachment trial.
“This is a farce. This is a pretext. This is absolutely irrelevant. There are two types of senators, the one that know there was no crime of responsibility and vote against the impeachment and those that know there was no crime of responsibility and vote in favor,” Senator Lindbergh Farias of the Workers Party said. Some have criticized the charges and the impeachment process for not being clean. Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept called it a “coup” after the Senate’s report found that Rousseff had not illegally masked the public debt.
The removal brings an end to an event that has clouded Brazil for several months, including over the Rio Olympics held in August.