Brazil's lower house of parliament is set to vote on Rousseff's impeachment on Sunday, with opposition accusing the president of corruption and violating financial rules by manipulating state banks accounts to close budget gaps.
"To unseat a president by impeachment, without her having committed a crime, means tearing the Brazilian Constitution. This is a coup against the Republic, against democracy and, above all, against the votes of all Brazilians who participated in the electoral process… They want to submit to one of the greatest injustices can be committed against someone: condemn an innocent," Rousseff said in an article published in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Opposing and criticizing the government is part of democracy, while attempting to unseat an elected president on unfounded charges has no place in democratic practice, she added.
Meanwhile, Rousseff lost several allies with the Progressive Party and the Social Democratic Party having left her coalition earlier this week. The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party left the governing coalition in late March.
Rousseff has been facing a wave of public discontent for over a year amid Brazil’s struggling economy and a major corruption scandal in the state-owned Petrobras petroleum company.
