Brazil's congressional impeachment committee favors ousting president

A Brazilian impeachment committee said Wednesday it favored ousting President Dilma Rousseff, while the presidential office said the congressional attempt would fail.

Jovair Arantes, rapporteur of the Special Committee on Impeachment in the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house of parliament, said that Rousseff was accused of manipulating government accounts without requiring congressional approval.

The government had delayed paying loans to public banks, which "created an ingenious mechanism to hide a fiscal deficit, which was very high from 2013," and Rousseff bears responsibility for the irregular government accounts, Arantes said.

The special committee is slated to vote Monday on Arantes' recommendation, which would send the impeachment decision to the full Chamber of Deputies.

On the same day, Jaques Wagner, chief of staff of Brazil's presidential office, said that a congressional attempt to impeach Rousseff would fail.

"I see the proposal as an attempt to create national support for an impeachment process that is falling to the floor. It is not legal, deepening the crisis and weakening democracy," Wagner told Brazilian daily O Globo.

For Wagner, the proposal for early elections is less aggressive than impeachment but he said this decision should be made by the president, who has no plans to do so.

Wagner also hailed the decision of the Progressive Party (PP) to stay in the coalition government though it will not sanction members who vote for impeaching Rousseff.

According to Wagner, this shows that the strategy of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) to break with the government in hopes of causing a similar movement among smaller parties has failed.

"This was a hoped-for decision (by the PP), which shows the PMDB's decision has failed and it was hasty and wrong," he said, adding other parties such as the Republican Party and the Social Democratic Party would also stay in the government.

With the help of these smaller allies, Rousseff is hopeful to have enough votes in the 513-member Chamber of Deputies to thwart any impeachment attempts.

A two-thirds majority vote in favor of impeachment is needed to send the issue to the Senate, which would rule whether Rousseff should be toppled. Endi