Brazil: My impeachment a blow to democracy – President Rousseff

Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has again dismissed a parliamentary motion against her as a coup, saying Senate’s endorsement of the impeachment bill was a blow to democracy.
Rousseff said in a angry speech upon leaving Brasilia’s Planalto presidential palace that the impeachment was totally “fraudulent”, calling it “a coup.”
“I never imagined that it would be necessary to fight once again against a coup in this country,” Rousseff said, referring to the time she was fighting against Brazil’s military dictatorship.
Rousseff was suspended earlier in the day by members of the Brazilian Senate, who voted 55 to 22 to put her on trial.
The vote came after a motion was launched in April in the lower house, with lawmakers accusing the embattled leader of financial wrongdoing during campaign that led to her election as president in 2014.
“I call on all Brazilians who are against the coup, whatever party they support, to stay mobilized, united and peaceful,” Rousseff said, reiterating that she never committed any crime to face trial.
“It’s the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being to be condemned for a crime you didn’t commit. There is no more devastating injustice,” said Rousseff.
She added that that she survived in her life pains of torture during the military dictatorship as well as cancer, but no pain was as acute as that of the “injustice of the impeachment.”
The Senate decision ended more than 13 years of rule by the left-wing Workers Party. Rousseff, herself an economist and Brazil’s first female president, helped labor movement’s agenda of lifting millions of people out of poverty. However, the opposition camp’s support for her ouster means she has little chance of surviving the trial.
Michel Temer, who’s been Brazil’s vice president since 2011, will become interim president. – Press TV.