Raucous start as corruption charge vote against Brazilian leader gets under way
President Michel Temer says he has enough support to stop a two-thirds majority, in which case the bribery charge would be thrown out
Brasília — Brazilian legislators kicked off a raucous debate on Wednesday on whether to put scandal-plagued President Michel Temer on trial for corruption, just a year after his predecessor was booted from office. Opposition legislators brandished placards mocking Temer’s low approval ratings and wheeled in a suitcase similar to one used by a Temer aide when he was caught carrying the equivalent of $150,000 cash in alleged bribe money. "Out with Temer," they shouted. Temer, a deeply unpopular veteran of the ruling centre-right PMDB party, is accused of taking bribes from a meat packing industry executive — part of a wider scandal sucking in major politicians of every stripe. If two-thirds of deputies in the lower house of Congress accept the charge, Temer will be suspended for 180 days and face trial at the Supreme Court. The upheaval comes only 12 months after Congress ejected Temer’s leftist predecessor Dilma Rousseff in an impeachment trial. Now the left, which also hopes to dera...
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