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Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced Thursday that she would contest October's general elections as a senatorial candidate in the state of Minas Gerais.
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Rousseff announced her candidacy while speaking to a crowd of supporters outside the ABC Steelworkers Union headquarters in San Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo.
She has been accompanying Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva over the past few days in the lead up to his habeas corpus hearing, which was rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice Wednesday.
“Lula is innocent. He's being victimized by one of the gravest actions against our people. Our Constitution is clear. Nobody can be detained until all of their legal resources have been exhausted... This is part of the coup, the coup that began when they removed me from the Presidency of the Republic without having committed any crime,” she told the crowd.
To a roar of cheers and applause, Rousseff went on to state that the people are capable of resisting. “We are not a group of people who understand the language of stones and gunfire. This is not the Brazil we want. We will continue to resist courageously.”
Rousseff, the first female president of Brazil, was impeached by a congressional vote on Aug. 31, 2016. Her “crime,” the so-called “pedaladas,” was based on manipulating public finances to conceal a budget deficit, using the funds, instead, for a program dedicated to agricultural needs of small family farmers.
Supporters and even some critics of her presidency contested that the measure was not illegal since it had been used by previous administrations without any repercussions.
Recalling the misogynistic fervor accompanying what she's vehemently referred to as the 2016 “coup,” Rousseff tweeted, “I was considered 'obsessive-compulsive' with work,' while men are regarded as dynamic and hard-workers...Dilma is a harsh woman, and men are firm; Dilma is emotionally unstable, men are sensible.”
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