Few of the president’s allies who were in favor of the former president in 2016 admit regret. Ten years later, the episode is being treated with pragmatism in setting up platforms in the states for the 2026 elections, while the majority of those who voted for the impeachment avoid bringing up the subject.
A Sheet sought out 19 political leaders who were in favor of impeachment — 16 of them were congressmen who voted in favor of the process at or at the Federal. Twelve did not want to comment on the topic or did not respond and only two declared regret. One stated that the justification for the revocation was weak, without commenting on her stance at the time, two others expressed regret, but did not say they would act differently, and two more said they had no regrets.
The complete list includes seven names who held ministries during the Lula government, plus two cadres currently affiliated with the PT and politicians that the party is considering supporting in disputes for the Senate and state governments.
The removal of the then president completed ten years this Friday (17).
First tier
The vice-president and pre-candidate for re-election (), who was also Minister of Development and Industry, was governor of São Paulo for the PSDB in 2016 and said, through his advisors, that the impeachment “was based on a fragile justification that put democracy in Brazil at risk”.
He recalled that the Sheet reported, in 2015, that he – which served as the basis for the revocation request. However, he did not comment on the statement he made the following year, that “the PSDB acted correctly by voting in favor of impeachment”, in an interview with SBT.
The federal deputy (Rede-SP), former Minister of the Environment, and, in 2018, said that she did not regret her position. “I supported the impeachment out of conviction, there was a crime of responsibility. I am not guided by electoral metrics”, he said in a hearing promoted by O Globo, Valor and Época. She is tipped to run for a seat in the Senate on the ticket of PT member Fernando Haddad for the São Paulo government, which already has (PSB) as a pre-candidate for the other vacancy.
Tebet was Minister of Planning and left the position to run in São Paulo at the request of Lula himself. In 2016, she was a senator for the PMDB (today) and justified her vote “by the harmful consequences for this and future generations who will pay this bill”.
For the PT member, who was Dilma’s private lawyer during the impeachment process, it is “inevitable to join political forces to avoid barbarism”, referring to the union of left and center cadres, since the 2022 election, to defeat Bolsonarism – as in the case of the Lula-Alckmin ticket itself, which brought together Marina and had the support of Tebet in the second round.
Supported by the PT to be re-elected, the senator (PSD-MT), former Minister of Agriculture, was vice-governor of Mato Grosso for the PP and traveled to Brasília in April 2016 to follow the vote in the Chamber. “To say that this is a scam is an easy and desperate statement,” he told the Olhar Direto portal at the time.
André de Paula (PSD-PE), former Minister of Fisheries, took over Agriculture in Fávaro’s place and voted for impeachment when he was . The former Minister of Sports (PP-MA) and the former Minister of Communications (PSDB-MA) also voted for impeachment.
Juscelino said he would not speak. Tebet, Marina, André de Paula, André Fufuca and Carlos Fávaro did not return the contact attempts made by the Sheet via calls, email and messaging apps.
Upcoming
One of the supports that caused the most grief for PT members was that of , former mayor of São Paulo and former Minister of Culture in the Dilma government. She left the PT for the PMDB in 2015 and, as a senator, not only did she vote for impeachment, but also lawyer Janaina Paschoal, one of the authors of the request. Marta returned to the PT in 2024, to be a candidate for vice-mayor of São Paulo in the municipal elections and, via consultancy, did not want to comment on her vote ten years ago.
Another harshly criticized by the PT was Cristovam Buarque, after the scandal and while he was a senator for the PPS (now Citizenship). “I voted as an economist and I confess that I made a mistake as a politician,” he said.
Today a pre-candidate for federal deputy for Alckmin’s PSB, he reported having been “massacred” by PT members even though he supported Lula in 2022 and joined the president’s ticket in the DF in 2026.
“We don’t regret what, at that moment, was the right thing to do. We regret the consequences of what happened. It’s one thing to regret it, it would have been better not to have had to [proceder com o impeachment]”, he stated.
and a pre-candidate for re-election, the senator (MA) admitted regret for her pro-impeachment vote when she was a deputy for the PPS. “It’s one of the few mistakes I’ve made in my political life,” he said.
Charged for her position by PT members – now party colleagues –, she attributed the change to maturity. “These are people who, by taking this position today, are self-criticizing the legal aberration [que foi o impeachment]”, assesses the minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, (PT-CE), who was government leader in the Chamber in 2015 and 2016.
The person who also regretted his vote was Floriano Pesaro (PSB-SP), director of Corporate Management at ApexBrasil (Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency). A deputy for the PSDB in 2016, he said he had made “a historic mistake”.
“Today we are aware that, at that moment, a large part of those who voted in favor of impeachment were being manipulated,” he told Sheet.
Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) said that there was a conspiracy against the PT at the time and that “a lot of people went along with it”. The speech was endorsed by José Eduardo Cardozo: “There are people who didn’t want to disagree with public opinion, who thought there was no way to do it any other way. There is no reason not to talk to these people now.”
A name defended by Lula for the Government of Minas Gerais, the senator (PSB) also voted for impeachment as a deputy. He told the reporter that he followed the PMDB and the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association). “Today, I recognize the trauma generated by the rupture of a presidential term, and I consider that the consequences of this were not the best”, he declared.
Senators (MDB-AL), Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM), Eunício Oliveira (MDB-CE) and Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) voted for impeachment and, today, are discussing tickets with the PT in their states. Of the four, only Aziz is a pre-candidate for governor, while the others will seek re-election.
Also a senator, (-AP) was elected president of the Senate in 2025 with the support of the PT. In 2016, when voting for removal, he said that the process was legitimate, in contrast to the PT’s speech that it was a coup.
Renan did not return messages, emails and calls from Sheet. Alcolumbre, in a statement, responded that he “does not act as an ally or as an opposition”, but did not mention his stance during the impeachment. The others also declined to comment on their respective votes.
No regrets
The PT is considering supporting the pre-candidacy of Acir Gurgacz (PDT) for the Senate in Rondônia. He stated that he did not regret his vote as a senator, adding that he had followed research that indicated that the majority of the electorate in his state was in favor of impeachment and had already talked about it with Lula and Dilma. “The problem is that the country was ungovernable,” he said.
Senator Professor Dorinha Seabra (União Brasil-TO), pre-candidate for the Government of Tocantins, is seen as a name to be supported by the PT in the state. Despite this, she stated that she acted independently, whether supported by the party or not, and said that she did not regret the vote she gave as a deputy. “It was an institutional decision in the face of a serious economic and political crisis.”
Guilherme Matos, Malu Araujo and Mariana Grasso, from São Paulo, collaborated
