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Indignant Rousseff vows to fight to the end

Xinhua, April 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Monday she was "indignant" at the "betrayal" against her and vowed to continue her fight against impeachment.

In her first speech since losing an impeachment vote in the Chamber of Deputies or the lower house of parliament, Rousseff said: "This is not the beginning of the end. We are beginning a long fight."

"They are torturing my dreams and my rights but they cannot hope to see me off, because democracy is always on the right side of history," she said in the speech delivered live on television,.

"This fight will not just be for my mandate. I will also fight for the 54 million votes I received," she vowed.

"This is a fight by all Brazilians for democracy. Without democracy, there will be no economic growth, there will be no job creation, social programs will not be maintained," she added.

The head of state blasted the lower house for treating her differently from previous presidents for so-called "fiscal irregularities."

Rousseff's opponents said she delayed payments to state banks to artificially improve the appearance of public accounts during her 2014 re-election campaign.

"This was done by other presidents before me and these were never called illegal or criminal acts," Rousseff said.

Rousseff was particularly scathing Vice President Michel Temer from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) which quit the ruling coalition on March 29, saying it was "startling" that a vice president would actively conspire against a sitting president.

Rousseff also confirmed that she had instructed the attorney general to question the validity of the impeachment process at the Supreme Court while she is also preparing her potential defense in the Senate.

"We will use every instrument to exercise our right to defense," she said.

Rousseff did not rule out the possibility of asking the Congress to bring forward presidential elections, currently set for 2018, to later this year.

On Sunday, the Chamber of Deputies voted 367-146 to endorse impeachment against Rousseff, passing the matter to the Senate.

Should the Senate decide within 24 days to begin an impeachment trial, Rousseff will have to step aside for 180 days for the trial to proceed. Vice President Temer will then take over as interim president. Endi