Rousseff: ’This story does not end here … we will return’

Dilma Rousseff entrenched herself as soon as she received confirmation that she had been dismissed from the presidency of Brazil on Wednesday. “This story does not end here”; “We will return” to “fight”, she promised combatively.

With a 61 to 20 vote count against her, the Senate approved the dismissal of Rousseff for budgetary irregularities, charges which she always denied.

“They just knocked off the first woman president of Brazil without having any constitutional justification for impeachment,” she said in the speech after the vote that ended her tenure.

“Sixty-one senators replaced the will expressed by 54.5 million voters (…). The Senate made a decision that becomes part of the history of the great injustices. The senators who voted for the impeachment chose to rip the Federal Constitution apart, and decided to interrupt the mandate of a president who did not commit the crime of which she is accused, they condemned an innocent person and consummated a parliamentary coup,” she added.

Rousseff was informed shortly after the decision, which was taken at the end of a process that for nine months shook Brazil.

After voting for her dismissal, the Senate conserved the president’s political rights, therefore Rousseff, if she desires, can still run for political office.

“Listen well: they think that they’ve beaten us, but they are wrong. I know we’re all going to fight. Against them there will be the strongest, tireless and energetic opposition a coup government can have,” she said.

While able to run for public office, Rousseff, who ruled from January 1, 2011, until Wednesday, will not be eligible to serve as president in 2018 because she won two consecutive elections.

“This story does not end here. I’m sure that disruption of this process by the coup is not final. We will return, return to continue our journey towards a Brazil where the people are sovereign,” she promised.

[Photo at top captured from television: Dilma Rousseff addressing her audience after she learned of her dismissal.]

Translation to English by Progreso Weekly.