Read Editorial with D2G – Ep CXXIV

In Read Editorial With D2G
April 21, 2016

DEEPENING CRISIS IN BRAZIL

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 D2G wears no responsibility of the views published here by the respective Author. This Editorial is used here for Study Purpose. Students are advised to learn the word-meaning, The Art of Writing Skills and understand the crux of this Editorial.

MEANINGS are given in BOLD and ITALIC

Brazil’s Lower House of Congress has decided to start impeachment (The impeachment of a senior official is the process of charging them with a crime which makes them unfit for office) proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, inflicting another blow to her and her embattled left-wing party. Ms. Rousseff’s popularity has eroded (If the value of something erodes or is eroded by something such as inflation or age, its value decreases) fast over the last year with a deepening economic crisis and a spreading corruption scandal, in which several of her Workers Party (PT) leaders have been implicated. Some of her recent moves to ride out the crisis, such as appointing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as her Chief of Staff, backfired in the face of legal, congressional and political opposition.

Even crucial allies in Parliament such as the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party deserted her, providing her rivals the required number of votes in the Lower House to send the impeachment motion to the Senate. It is not yet clear whether her rivals will secure a majority in the Senate to impeach the President. But Brazil appears set to become even more deeply politically polarised (If something polarizes people or if something polarizes, two separate groups are formed with opposite opinions or positions) given the resolve to press ahead with the impeachment process against a backdrop of daily street demonstrations by those for and opposed to Ms. Rousseff and a virtual collapse of governance.

Few would have imagined that Ms. Rousseff would be engulfed in such a crisis when she was re-elected two years ago, extending the PT’s rule to a fourth consecutive term. Though her margin of victory was not large, it was still comfortable. But ever since her re-election, Brazil’s economy has been on a downward slide, with global commodity prices falling. Ms. Rousseff could do little as the economy slowed down, then stalled and finally slid into the worst recession since the 1930s. Her immediate response was to slash public spending to rein in the deficit, which alienated the core support base of the PT, the working population. Undercut by economic troubles, Ms. Rousseff became an easy target for the opposition, which sniffed an opportunity to end the seemingly interminable PT rule.

The opposition’s claims that its battle to remove Ms. Rousseff is a fight against corruption is a cover for a larger power struggle. The President has not been implicated in any corruption case. The impeachment motion is based on allegations that during her 2014 campaign she manipulated government books to hide the real numbers relating to Brazil’s deficit. Ironically, many of her rivals, including House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, the leader of the impeachment campaign, face serious corruption charges. Yes, it is true that Ms. Rousseff could have managed the crisis better.

Her ineffectiveness in addressing the country’s vital problems and failure to take allies along are cases in point. However, the opposition’s bid to oust an elected President based on unproven charges of fudging (If you fudge something, you avoid making a clear and definite decision, distinction, or statement about it) accounts exposes a more Machiavellian (If you describe someone as Machiavellian, you are critical of them because they often make clever and secret plans to achieve their aims and are not honest with people) game plan. If the impeachment goes through, it would set an unhealthy precedent for a country with a history of coups.

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