Brazil VP Wants to Be President, but Not Through Elections

Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer has put forward a number of policy proposals including teacher bonuses and relaxed labor laws, making headlines Monday in what resembles a presidential campaign ahead of the possible impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, while he has also said that early elections would constitute a “coup d’etat” in the crisis-gripped country.

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Impeachment in Brazil

Temer, who will take over from Rousseff if a Senate vote in favor of impeachment suspends her next month, has promised to, among other measures, set a fixed retirement age of 65, introduce bonuses for teachers, uncouple social assistance increases from the minimum wage, and loosen the labor code to give companies power to negotiate on more issues.

In response to criticisms of his proposals, coming from groups including the left-wing MST landless worker movement, Temer said “order comes before progress,” Brazil’s O Globo reported. The statement was a reference the national motto on the Brazilian flag which reads “Order and Progress.”

Meanwhile, Temer has argued that early elections in the event of Rousseff’s impeachment would amount to a coup, resorting to the same language that Rousseff and her allies have used to describe the impeachment process due to its lack of legal basis.

Temer argued that while impeachment is allowed in the constitution, early elections this year would be a “fallacy.”

The statements give weight to accusations from Rousseff and supporters that the impeachment effort is an attempt at “indirect elections” and a bid to seize power that cannot be won at the ballot box.

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Temer’s opinion is also at odds with the desires of Brazilian voters, six out of 10 of whom don’t want Temer as president and would prefer to see snap elections this year. Only 8 percent believe Temer can resolve Brazil's political crisis, according to a recent poll.

Despite being next in line for Brazil’s top office with the impending impeachment, the corruption-embroiled lawmaker faces dismal approval ratings for the next election.

Rousseff’s predecessor and close ally former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the other hand, would have a good chance at winning a snap election this year. In recent polls, gauging voter opinion for the next scheduled presidential election in 2018, Lula came out as the favorite potential candidate with over 20 percent of popular support, versus just 2 percent for Temer.

Rousseff and pro-democracy movements argue that although impeachment is allowed in the constitution, the current bid to remove the president from office lacks the legal basis required for a legitimate impeachment, prompting cries of an “institutional coup.”

Unlike many of her rivals, including Temer and impeachment leader Eduardo Cunha, Rousseff is not accused of any financial impropriety. Rousseff is accused of manipulating government budget accounts ahead of the 2014 election, an act she argues was done by previous governments without special scrutiny.

The fact that pro-impeachment lawmakers have turned a blind eye to rampant fraud without their own ranks and targeted Rousseff in their anti-corruption witch hunt suggests that the motives behind the impeachment bid have less to do with rooting out fraud and more to do with grabbing power and shielding corrupt officials from facing charges.

A Senate committee is currently debating the impeachment request and is set to vote next month on whether to launch an investigation, forcing Rousseff to be suspended from office at least temporarily.