Court suspends speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Silvio Cascione May 5 at 4:58 PM

BRASILIA — A Supreme Court justice suspended the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress on Thursday for obstructing a corruption investigation, removing him from the line of succession to the president just days before she too is expected to be suspended.

A court spokeswoman said Eduardo Cunha, a bitter rival of President Dilma Rousseff and the legislator responsible for impeachment proceedings against her, had been removed as speaker pending confirmation by the full court.

The move, yet another political tremor in a country struggling with a historic government crisis and the worst recession in decades, followed a request from Brazil’s top prosecutor.

As speaker, Cunha was third in line for the presidency and would have become second if Rousseff, as expected, was suspended from office next week because of alleged budget irregularities. She would be replaced by Michel Temer, the 75-year-old vice president.

Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki accepted an injunction requested five months ago by the prosecutor general. The prosecutor sought Cunha’s removal for allegedly intimidating lawmakers and obstructing an investigation into accusations that he held undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.

 

Cunha is the only sitting lawmaker officially charged by the Supreme Court with corruption in a sweeping kickbacks scandal focused on state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, commonly known as Petrobras. An evangelical Christian with strong support from the religious right in Congress, Cunha has for months been fending off ethics committee hearings in the lower house about whether he lied about the Swiss accounts.

Deputy speaker Waldir Maranhao, a member of the Progressive Party who is also being investigated in the Petrobras scandal, became acting head of the lower chamber after Cunha’s suspension.

Cunha launched impeachment proceedings against Rousseff in December on charges she broke budget laws. As an implacable foe of the president, his suspension could have helped Rousseff had it come earlier. Now it could work against her by weakening her argument that she is being impeached by corrupt politicians. It could, in contrast, help a Temer presidency by removing the taint of suspicion from a key position with whom the new president would have to negotiate for legislative traction.

“Temer would inherit the presidency because of a process started by Cunha,” said Rafael Cortez, a political analyst with Tendencias, a consultancy in Sao Paulo. “Any agreements they would have made could have looked like payback for enabling him to become president.”

Most crucial for Temer is the need to pass much-needed reforms to kick-start the economy, plug a gaping budget deficit and restore confidence for Brazil’s struggling consumers, businesses and industry.

The leftist president is fighting for her political survival since the lower house commanded by Cunha voted April 17 to charge her with manipulating government accounts, which her opponents say allowed her to boost public spending before her 2014 reelection.
Rousseff denies any wrongdoing.