News Analysis: Rousseff impeachment, a result of political isolation

The impeachment trial brought by Brazil's Senate against Dilma Rousseff is a result of the political isolation she experienced that started at the end of her first term, and worsened as the economy fell into a recession, analysts said.

Brazil's Senate on Wednesday voted to impeach Rousseff, by a vote of 61 to 20.

Political observer Ricardo Caldas, director of the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Brasilia (UnB), believes several factors led to the impeachment, in addition to the charge of fiscal wrongdoing.

"Rousseff is handicapped by a set of factors, principally her inability to dialogue. It is an approach that she rejects. She does not dialogue, she is a person who does not admit to mistakes," said Caldas.

Rousseff "is a person who has a negative view of profits, of the market economy. Her model is of the state economy. So she came into conflict with the business people and with the politicians," he added.

Those shortfalls eventually led to an acute recession and an unprecedented fiscal deficit that endangered the very survival of the state, he said.

"In the private sector, it would be said that her administration was reckless. She put the state in jeopardy. It is a problem that goes beyond administrative mismanagement, because she almost left the state in a situation of insolvency," said Caldas.

In the final stages of her truncated second term, said Caldas, both sides were weary and keen to put an end to the matter, even Rousseff's own Workers' Party (PT), which needed to "turn the page" on the matter with an eye to the 2018 presidential elections.

Hebe Mattos, professor of history at the Federal University of Fluminense, said one of the determining factors leading to the impeachment was the massive anti-government protests in 2013, demanding improved public services and an end to corruption.

"A president who had 80 percent popularity suddenly had thousands of people in the street, and there was no answer to that. There are several views on that process. The demands in the street were not all the same, not everyone was asking for the same thing. But the figure of the president catalyzed that dissatisfaction," said Mattos.

"Also in 2013, the economic crisis, which plays a role (in the impeachment), began. The media, all of it from the opposition, also plays a role, calling on people to go out into the streets. The left didn't know how to channel those demands and the right knew how to capitalize on them," Mattos added.

One decisive factor, she noted, was the political nature of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), the party of Rousseff's running mate and vice president Michel Temer, who will serve the rest of her term.

Using the legislative process to his advantage, Temer gradually laid the groundwork for his succession.

"I think that is a secret of this story. The PMDB is a party that plays politics the traditional way, and since the new republic (was formed following the military dictatorship), the PMDB was never able to attain power directly," said Mattos.

The PMDB, she added, always managed to exercise power through its alliances with those at the top, including former presidents Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and later the PT's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Rousseff.

Mattos also agreed that Rousseff's lack of interest or skill in talks and negotiation played a key role in unleashing the political crisis.

"Dilma isolated herself, especially following the decision in her second term to take up the fight against corruption," said Mattos, adding the president said to herself "They are not going to get me. The political practices have to be replanted, because I am shielded."

Rousseff believed the corruption investigations should reach conclusions unfettered by any political interference, a belief that ended up pitting her against many of her own allies, said Mattos.

"Dilma made a bet and lost. She and her minister (of Justice) Jose Eduardo Cardozo were heavily criticized by the PT for not taking any measures (to protect party allies). Dilma was isolated, even within the PT. For the first time, everyone ended up on the other side, with the president completely isolated," said Mattos.

Luiz Fernando Horta, professor of international relations at the UnB, said Brazil's political crisis should be viewed within a larger geopolitical context.

"As of the 2008 global crisis, there is an interest in maintaining the existing world order. Since then a number of conservative right-wing narratives have emerged that are behind the problems facing the countries that want to make a difference, and Brazil is one of them," said Horta.

South African President Jacob Zuma avoided impeachment in 2014 by a narrow margin, recalled Horta, while Russia's Vladimir Putin is battling a series of military and ideological challenges.

Workers' Party governments in Brazil scored certain successes in domestic affairs, including improving the working class' access to material goods, but they were unable to make the educational and cultural progress needed to change the power structure, he said.

"We still have the same governing elites from the same social segment, whites from the middle and upper classes, that laid the groundwork for this crisis," said Horta. Endit