Rousseff urges 'grand pact' to save Brazil from crisis

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called Thursday for a "grand pact" to unify the country in the midst of a political crisis that could end with her impeachment.

"Brazil has already overcome difficult moments by making pacts," she said in the capital Brasilia.

Rousseff promised to back "absolutely necessary political reforms" provided she were allowed to stay in power. "That is the pact I'm looking for."

"No agreement will work without the premise of respect for legality and democracy. The first premise must be the defense of the popular will demonstrated at elections," she said in the capital Brasilia.

Although the president did not give any detail about what she was proposing, her comments appeared more conciliatory than in recent days, when she has repeatedly accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt.

But Everaldo Moraes, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said Rousseff was grasping at straws.

"Rousseff feels her situation is worse every day. Impeachment is taking shape and it's natural that she tries to raise the tone, but I think the moment of pacts as a way to seek support has passed," he said.

While there has been widespread discussion about holding new elections as a way to avoid the trauma of impeachment, "I think that is unlikely because pro-impeachment groups feel that this is their moment," he said.

Meanwhile, in another potential blow for Rousseff, new testimony emerged that dirty money from a huge scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras made it into her 2014 reelection campaign.

- Scandals mounting up -

The rapporteur for a parliamentary commission on Wednesday found that Rousseff's impeachment case -- based on allegations that she illegally masked budgetary shortfalls in 2014 -- should go ahead.
That initial finding will be followed by a vote in the full commission on Monday.

A week later, on April 18, the lower house of Congress will vote. A two-thirds majority there would send Rousseff to face an impeachment trial in the Senate, where another two-thirds vote would force her to step down.

Rousseff, who says her accounting tricks were common practice in previous governments and not an impeachable offense, is battling to assemble a coalition able to defeat the impeachment vote.

While the battle rages in Congress, another probe is under way at the country's electoral court into allegations that Rousseff's campaign was funded with money stolen in the massive Petrobras embezzlement scheme.

If the court finds Rousseff guilty on this, then her 2014 reelection victory would be annulled, meaning both she and her vice president, Michel Temer, would have to step down, followed by new elections.
Prosecutors say that for years under the presidency of Rousseff's predecessor and ally Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a group of powerful companies and politicians conspired in a pay-to-play scheme where bribes were given to win inflated contracts.

Bribes went to executives at Petrobras and other state companies, influential politicians and also allegedly to political campaigns, including those of Rousseff and her narrowly defeated rival in 2014 Aecio Neves.

On Thursday, that scandal bubbled up again with the leaking of testimony from a former CEO who said his company had funneled bribe money into Rousseff's reelection coffers.

Folha de Sao Paulo daily quoted what it said was testimony from Otavio Marques Azevedo, ex-CEO of Andrade Gutierrez, Brazil's second-largest construction company, who was arrested last June.

Testifying as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors probing Petrobras corruption, Azevedo reportedly said that millions of dollars in legal donations to the 2014 Rousseff campaign were originally funded with money from bribes paid in connection to huge contracts handed to Andrade Gutierrez.

Folha's report said that it was not clear whether the dirty money was paid into the accounts of Rousseff's reelection committee or to her ruling Workers' Party.

The money originated in contracts won by Andrade Gutierrez at a Rio oil facility, a nuclear power station, and the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam complex, the report said.

Folha quoted Rousseff lawyer Flavio Caetano responding that all donations had been given "legally and voluntarily to the 2014 campaign -- and in smaller amounts than those given to the opposing candidate."

"It is unfortunate that the instrument of a plea bargain should be used, yet again, for political reasons via selective leaking," he said.
Source: AFP