Little is said about the economy when it comes to , revoked in August 2016 by the so-called tax cycles. Ten years later, the same argument prevails in the party that the former president was the victim of a coup due to the political situation – but with the addition that the process paved the way for the rise of the right, culminating in episodes such as January 8, 2023.
The only woman to occupy the chair of president in the country’s history, Dilma is described by allies and opponents as centralizing and distrustful, a reputation she has mocked since she was minister of the Civil House. repeated several times over the years.
The profile of difficult temperament, added to the clean-up he carried out in the government during his first term, dismissing several politically well-connected cadres, are pointed out by PT members as some of the factors that supported Dilma’s impeachment among the political class.
for the removal of the then president turns ten years old this Friday (17).
“[Dilma] She was impeached for her qualities, not for her mistakes. He didn’t give in to pressure”, says the minister of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations, (PT-CE), who was government leader in the Chamber between February 2015 and May 2016, when the PT member was removed.
According to him, an authority cannot be revoked because it does not have a good relationship with the government. “She must have committed a crime, and she [Dilma] did not commit any crime. The movement was created to remove it with or without a crime. And to this day we pay the price, just look at January 8th [de 2023]”, it says.
former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Union of the Dilma government, in addition to being the PT member’s private lawyer during the impeachment, agrees that the attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers, committed by Bolsonarists dissatisfied with the victory in the 2022 election, had their origin in the impeachment.
For him, January 8th shows disrespect for the results of the polls, similar to what he believes happened in 2016. “The impeachment process brought an imbalance between the Powers”, he states. “We have to contest the elections, but if we don’t renegotiate, we will always be subjected to situations that generate coup sentiment, as happened on January 8.”
President Lula linked impeachment to the rise of Bolsonarism on Tuesday (14), during an interview with the websites Brasil 247, DCM and Revista Fórum: “We elected a woman like Dilma and then we had a coup d’état and fell into the hands of a fascist.”
IMPEACHMENT
The backdrop at the time was chaotic for the PT. Dilma was re-elected in 2014 with a tight result, facing resistance from a large part of the party of the then vice-president and the then president of the Chamber, both due to discussions in Congress and due to non-compliance with agreements on state platforms during the elections.
The second largest group in the Chamber, behind only the PT, the PMDB began to be divided in the votes, with many of its deputies acting as opposition and imposing defeats on the PT members.
In April 2015, Dilma chose Temer, who had presided over the Chamber years before,. The objective was to try to guarantee the support of the PMDB and calm tensions with deputies from other parties, something that did not happen.
“It was a serious political error”, assesses federal deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP), president of the PT at the time. “[Temer] it was creating power and preparing a block of trust to take over the government”, he says.
In the Electoral Court, the PSDB of Aécio Neves, the defeated candidate in the second round of the presidential election, called for the Dilma-Temer ticket to be challenged. The acronym alleged illegal campaign financing, based on investigations by , which had been wearing down the PT politically due to the involvement of several cadres in .
At the same time, , the main products of Brazilian exports, and were accompanied by against the Dilma government and the PT. On March 13, 2016, by impeachment on Avenida Paulista, according to Datafolha estimates, in the largest political act ever recorded in São Paulo.
For Alexandre Mathias, economist and partner at Meridian Investment, the problems arose before the commodities crisis. Dilma’s first term (2011-2014) implemented the so-called New Economic Matrix, with state interference in economic policies, tax relief, forced reduction in interest rates and expanded use of BNDES credits.
“The collapse occurred between 2014 and 2016 because the global scenario changed, the flow of capital decreased and interest rates rose in the United States. As capital became selective, the exchange rate soared, the economy recorded its worst recession”, he says.
The economist states that the artificial reduction in prices generated “a bill that the Treasury had to pay later” through tariff adjustments.
“To cover up the lack of cash and preserve the speech, the government began to delay the transfers of these accounting maneuvers that were the reason for the impeachment. At its peak, in 2015, the pedaling, a value that today exceeds R$ 100 billion [R$ 122,7 bilhões, segundo a cotação atual]”, says Mathias.
Former minister Cardozo says that the raw materials crisis “hit us hard”.
BIDDING
Dilma’s impeachment request accused fiscal pedaling: the delay in payments to public banks for the use of money in government programs – in this case, the Safra Plan –, and the opening of supplementary credits without Congressional approval.
Cardozo argues that there was no stipulated deadline for payment in the case of the Safra Plan. “It’s a situation that wasn’t illegal. Governments did it, and it happened during Dilma’s government.”
“The idea was created that there would have been a cycle in terms of the Budget. The things that happened at that time happened later, with Temer himself and the [ex-presidente Jair] Bolsonaro. It was a pretext to justify a political decision by Brazilian elites which was to remove Dilma and the PT from power”, says senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE).
Costa was the leader of the government when Dilma was removed. He took office in place of Delcídio do Amaral (MS), who had been arrested in November 2015 on charges of trying to interfere in a Lava Jato investigation.
Eduardo Cunha in December 2015, the same day that the PT bench decided to vote for continuity. “Basically, the impeachment process was opened by a decision of revenge,” says Cardozo.
Days later, accusing the president and those around him of despising him and sabotaging the PMDB in government, dismissing ministers appointed by him. The gesture was a blow to the government supporters, who expected the vice president to defend the PT member’s mandate. Temer began to be treated as a coup plotter and to this day is persona non grata in the PT.
CASSATION
In April 2016, the PT was surprised by the impeachment score: there were 367 votes in favor and 137 against the opening of the process in the Chamber, in an emblematic vote that lasted more than six hours, broadcast by the main TV stations. “We didn’t expect there to be so many votes”, admits Rui Falcão.
“This elastic score was because there was an institutional and media environment that defended impeachment”, says José Guimarães. “I felt that there was a great deal of falsehood, because [deputados] they said they were going to vote [contra]but in practice they did not vote.”
Dilma was removed from office in May, when the Senate admitted the trial. The impeachment was approved on August 31, 2016, by 61 votes in favor and 20 against. The then president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Ricardo Lewandowski, who years later would become Lula’s Minister of Justice, presided over that session.
The maintenance of the PT member’s political rights, voted separately, was seen by the PT members as a sign that the process was purely political.
The interpretation was reinforced by the TRF (Federal Regional Court) of the 1st Region, in 2023.
