Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is paying the price for systematic problems in the Brazilian political system, and the discontent of Brazilians with the system as a whole, Angelo Segrillo, Professor of History at the University of Sao Paulo, told Radio Sputnik.
"Most Brazilians are fed up of the system, because there are corruption allegations against members of almost all parties so the people are fed up with that, and since she is the president she gets the main blame."
"It's a very strange situation because although many politicians are being indicted, she has not had any claims against her in the judiciary. They are trying to impeach her on a very technical basis, for fiscal deficit problems," he explained.
"If she is impeached her vice-president will become president, and there are accusations against him too. Most importantly, the vice of this vice-president would be the head of the lower house, who is really involved in corruption, they are almost proving this."
Rousseff is a democratically elected president and if she is removed the febrile political situation could even lead to a military coup d'etat, Segrillo warned.
"Many people are afraid that if you just impeach the president on not very strong grounds, with all the sentiment against politicians, there may be a temptation of another of those coup d'etats."
Segrillo thinks that the parliament is likely to vote to start the process because of media pressure. Once the impeachment process has begun, the Senate will ultimately decide whether to impeach Rousseff or not.
"The TV is against the president, they are broadcasting the whole thing 24 hours a day so there is a lot of pressure on the lawmakers to impeach the president. If I had to bet, I would bet that they will start the impeachment process, but it’s a close call."
