The announcement by the Workers' Party (PT) comes after the resignation of Brazil's Health Minister, Nelson Teich, less than a month after taking office.
The Workers' Party (PT) of Brazil will present a formal petition to initiate an impeachment against the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for his mismanagement in the face of the health crisis that the country is going through due to COVID-19.
In a statement, the left-wing party reported that its executive commission "decided to submit to the Chamber of Deputies a collective impeachment petition against President Jair Bolsonaro."
The PT also noted that the request will also be supported by social movements, civil society organizations, and legal entities.
"With this government, there is nothing else to do," said PT President Gleisi Hoffmann at the meeting at which the decision was made.
Bolsonaro "no longer works with this government," added Hoffmann, who announced the lawsuit along with the party leader in the lower house, Enio Verri, and the Minority leader in Congress Jose Guimarães.
According to the PT president, Bolsonaro "is incapable of responding to the crisis we are experiencing and has neither the conditions nor the administrative and human capacity to run the country."
The former Army captain (Bolsonaro) "fights with the whole world, and does not protect the Brazilian people," Hoffmann highlighted.
The decision of the Workers' Party –a political organization of former presidents Lula Da Silva and Dilma Rousseff– comes hours after Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned in less than a month since taking office.
Teich took office on April 17 and replaced Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was dismissed by Bolsonaro, for his disagreements in managing the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil is the epicenter of the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, recording more than 220,291 positive cases and around 14,962 deaths, also becoming one of the most affected countries in the world.
Meanwhile, according to PT sources, its national leadership is consulting and coordinating with democratic and popular forces so that the collective demand for Impeachment can be carried out, signed and presented next week.
Doodi97 on May 18th, 2020 at 03:38 UTC »
Finally that crazy guy is so detestable that as a foreigner I hate him and I don’t even live in Brazil .
Barba_Rosa on May 18th, 2020 at 02:11 UTC »
Just for a little general context for those not familiarized with brazilian politics, there were other formal petitions for impeachment presented to the brazilian congress, actually last time i checked there are about 26 in line to be evaluated, from other politicians, and civil organizations like the brazilian press association(ABI).
And i've seen some people asking if there's a real possibility of Bolsonaro actually being impeached, well there is a this moment a real chance, the opposition to him is growing steadily every day, however is not as strong as Dilma Rousseff (last brazilian president to be impeached) but it's getting there soon at the current rate, and even today there is definetely more of a chance then Trump
Also i've seen some comments asking about the "powers" of the brazilian president, and if he is more "powerful" than other presidents or executive leaders around the world, and the short awser is "no", the brazilian constitution was rewriten after the brazilian dictatorship in way to "better balance" the three powers, in another comparision to the USA, the brazilian executive branch is considerably weaker than the american equivalent
glad to awser any questions, and sorry for bad english
edit: just to clarify, "Impeachment" in brazil is the whole process of "office removal", so unlike the US if the brazilian congress votes on a 2/3 majority in favor of impeachment this is not the whole process for "impeachment", this "step" would not make Bolsonaro "impeached" is just a step in the whole process.
NaughtyDreadz on May 18th, 2020 at 01:15 UTC »
But what about the PT?