Give Temer the elbow
Give Temer the elbow
Oct Saturday 29th 2016
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was impeached over budgetary manoeuvres that have been carried out by numerous presidents, including Barack Obama. KEN LIVINGSTONE believes coup-installed president Michel Temer represents a major threat to democracy
In Brazil, right wing neo-liberal policies are so unpopular that they have been consistently rejected at the ballot box in presidential elections for the last 13 years. Unable to achieve electoral victory, the only way to implement the neoliberal measures has been through the illegitimate impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, a move that’s seen hundreds of thousands out in protest calling for new elections in cities across the country and protesting against newly appointed President Michel Temer.
The impeachment and removal of Rousseff in August was extraordinary, when just 61 senators voted to overturn the will of 54 million Brazilians at the ballot box, in what numerous international commentators and civil society organisations were quick to condemn as a coup.
For those of us who expressed solidarity with activists against the US-backed dictatorship in Brazil from 1964-1985 and stood with the Chilean people against General Augusto Pinochet following the 1973 coup there, alarm bells are ringing at this right-wing regime change in one of the world’s largest democracies.
Tellingly, Rousseff was impeached over budgetary manoeuvres that have been carried out by numerous presidents over the years. The US academic Mark Weisbrot has highlighted the comparison that “When the Republicans in the US Congress threatened to shut down the government over the debt ceiling in 2013, the Obama administration used a number of accounting tricks to extend the deadline and there was little controversy over this.”
Temer’s supporters are so fearful of their unpopularity at the next presidential election that they are now attempting to discredit future presidential candidate and former president Lula da Silva. Numerous attempts have been made to link him to the corruption investigation that has left many in Brazil’s upper and lower houses facing serious corruption charges. Despite systematically seeing off the allegations, the accompanying media circus has tried to portray Lula as a controversial and corrupt figure.
More:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-702b-Give-Temer-the-elbow#.WBPteknFCWw