MACEIO/BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) – Dilma Rousseff is not the first Brazilian president forced to contemplate the loyalty of Renan Calheiros on the eve of her possible impeachment.
Nearly 25 years ago, Calheiros, the current president of the Senate who will decide the pace of debate over Rousseff’s impeachment, weighed the fate of a fellow politician from his tiny northeastern state of Alagoas: Fernando Collor de Mello.
Calheiros was a key advisor in Collor’s successful presidential campaign in 1989. Just three years later, his explosive revelations of government corruption to journalists and congressional investigators helped topple Collor in a corruption scandal.
As the impeachment process against Rousseff moves to the Senate after winning overwhelming support in the lower house of Congress on Sunday, she and her allies may look with trepidation to Calheiros, a crucial but inconsistent ally in the past year.
Calheiros has resisted the rush to remove Rousseff among a large wing of his Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), throwing his support behind the idea of new general elections to settle the country’s political crisis.
Yet those proposals are distant and theoretical, while the decision before Calheiros is urgent. He faces intense pressure from his own party and others in the opposition to quickly set a date for a Senate vote on whether to accept impeachment charges and put Rousseff on trial.
The precedent of Collor’s impeachment suggests a committee will be formed to present a recommendation on whether Rousseff should be tried. This would be voted on by the full chamber within 10 parliamentary sessions – which would be in early May.
The pro-impeachment camp only needs a simple majority in the Senate to open a trial, an easier hurdle than Sunday’s lower house vote, which required two-thirds support.
