Brazil’s lower house of Congress must open impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer, Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurelio Mello ruled on Tuesday, potentially raising political instability in Latin America’s largest country.
The full Supreme Court will decide at a later date whether to uphold his decision. Mello issued an injunction arguing that lower house chief Eduardo Cunha overstepped his authority by throwing out an impeachment request against Temer. He ordered the creation of a special committee to recommend whether the vice president should be ousted.
The impeachment request argues that Temer broke the law signing spending decrees without authorization from Congress. The vice president’s press office denied wrongdoing and said that his conduct was supported by a report from a prosecutor with the country’s top federal audit court.
In a separate process, a lower house committee is already reviewing whether to oust President Dilma Rousseff on similar grounds. The president’s allies, including her mentor and predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have accused Temer of orchestrating a coup by supporting the impeachment proceedings against her. He denies the allegations.
(Bloomberg)