Professor Antônio Marcelo Jackson, who teaches political science at the Department of Education of the Federal University of Ouro Preto, told Sputnik Brasil that the country is now in a very delicate situation, and that both the Brazilian government and opposition must carefully consider their actions.
He said that first and foremost that S&P openly stated that the reduction of Brazil’s credit rating was caused by the difficult political situation in the country.
"It’s like the agency says that while the Brazilian economy is facing the same problems that the rest of the world has to deal with, the political situation in Brazil drags the country down," Professor Jackson said. "In the 1980s, an economic growth lower that 4% was considered a recession. Today, except for maybe one or two countries, the average economic growth in the world is about 3%. The whole planet Earth and all of its countries are dealing with recession. This is the reality that no one can escape. The countries with more or less organized political affairs that do not suffer from internal conflicts will be able to deal with this problem more quickly. But when the political affairs are not organized, like in Brazil, things become more complicated."
He also added that by not attending the parade in Brasilia on September 7, both Cunha and Calheiros displayed their lack of interest in dealing with the economic problems that the country is facing.
"For them, the old provers "the worse the better" is true," said Professor Jackson. "It's one thing to stage all those protests and marches because any democracy needs it, because democracy devoid of criticism is not a democracy. But it’s another thing when the executive power says that we need to reduce expenses, and what does the legislative power do? It approves the absurd [pay] raise for another [judicial] power, which causes a tremendous increase in the governmental expenses, and then the very same legislative power says that it’s not responsible for it? I’m sorry, but we’re being taken for a fool."
When asked about the attempt impeach President Rousseff and how the Brazilian MPs will vote on it, Professor Jackson said that it’s all part of the democratic process and that in order to launch the impeachment procedure, a number of very serious accusations need to be proven.
"If it were possible [to predict how they will act], we would have to try and understand the level of awareness and responsibility of all of the 513 MPs regarding the political crisis we're facing," he said.
