A process of impeachment has been started against the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.
The president of the lower house of Congress, Speaker Eduardo Cunha, opened impeachment proceedings after having accepted a petition to start the procedure on the basis of alleged financial irregularities in Ms Rousseff’s public accounts.
The superior electoral court ruled in October that there were reasons to investigate suspected irregularities in Rousseffs re-election campaign.
Federal auditors say last year’s public accounts omitted liabilities and discretionary spending. The Audit Court recommended that the accounts be rejected.
Ms Rousseff has said she is innocent.
The last president of Brazil to be impeached was Fernando Collor in 1992.
Some view the proceedings against Ms Rousseff to be a strategy to remove the spotlight from the speaker himself who is under investigation for corruption.
The allegations against Mr Cunha including hiding money in Swiss bank accounts and taking bribes as part of the kickback scandal at state-owned energy giant Petrobras, itself the subject of a prolonged trial process.
Mr Cunha denies ulterior motives. “This doesn’t bring anyone any happiness,” he said. “But we won’t keep this petition in the drawer without deciding.”
Ms Rousseff alluded to these charges in a statement: “I have committed no illicit act. There are no suspicions of misusing public money hanging over me. I do not have accounts abroad, nor have I hidden the existence of personal assets from public knowledge.”
An impeachment trial is still a long way off as the process requires several stages before it can reach a vote to remove the leader. As part of the next step, two-thirds of the lower house must approve the impeachment process for it to then move forward.
