I was a victim of parliamentary boycott, President Rousseff says

Suspended President Dilma Rousseff told the Senate on Monday (August 29) that she had been victim to the greatest boycott in the Brazilian Lower House of Congress and in the nation’s history.

The leftist leader, appearing before the Senate to defend herself in a process expected to remove her from office this week, said Brazil’s economic elite and political opposition had sought to destabilise her government since her 2014 re-election.

Rousseff denied charges of breaking budgetary rules and denounced the nine-month impeachment process that has paralysed Brazilian politics as a plot to overthrow her.

“Another situation took place, I repeat, at the start of 2016, when the Lower House did not work, not one measure was approved from February up until two days before my departure. If that is not the greatest boycott in the history of Brazil, I do not know what is,” said Rousseff.

With the odds stacked against her, Rousseff’s testimony appears to be aimed at making a point for the history books that her impeachment was a travesty, rather than a bid to sway the 81-seat Senate to block her ouster.

If the Senate convicts Rousseff on Tuesday or Wednesday as expected, Temer, 75, will be sworn in to serve the rest of her term through 2018. His business-friendly government vows to take unpopular austerity measures to plug a growing fiscal deficit that cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating last year