Rousseff reiterates she will not step down, warns against coup

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff reiterated on Thursday that she will not step down from her position and that a coup is ongoing in the country, local news site G1 said.

Rousseff told several foreign correspondents, a impeachment process against her lacks any legal basis and reaffirmed her intention to stay at the helm of the government.

She classified the process as an attempted coup, though she admits the current situation is different from the 1964 coup which established the start of a two-decade military dictatorship in Brazil.

Rousseff is in the middle of an impeachment process. However, she said the process has no legal basis since no crime has been attributed to her so far.

The president also criticized President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha. According to Rousseff, Cunha began the impeachment process against her -- a prerogative of head of the House -- in order to shift the attention from his own dilema.

Cunha is a defendant in a corruption case, having been accused of taking hefty bribes in the Petrobras corruption scheme. Six undeclared accounts belonging to him were discovered by Swiss authorities, containing millions of U.S. dollars. Over the years, several of Cunha's expenses were charged to the accounts, as well as high-end purchases for his wife and daughter. Endi