MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's strongest business lobby supports President Rousseff's impeachment

“The country is adrift, and there are no attitudes to solve the problems” said Paulo Skaf, FIESP president in a brief release.

The all powerful Sao Paulo Federation of Industries, FIESP, formalized on Tuesday its support to the impeachment process against Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, thus becoming the first business corporation to publicly express such stance that could end with the removal of the head of state of Latin America's largest economy.

 The decision follows an internal opinion poll ordered by FIESP and which showed that a majority of Sao Paulo business and manufacturers favor the impeachment process.

“The country is adrift, and there are no attitudes to solve the problems” said Paulo Skaf, FIESP president in a brief release. “The time has come to put eyes on where the problem is. In my view the problem is in the political system”.

Skaf is also a member of PMDB, the senior coalition partner of Dilma Rousseff and holds seven ministries in the cabinet, which is headed by vice-president Michel Temer, who also happens to be a close friend and ally of FIESP's leader. If Rousseff is finally removed, Temer is first in the line of succession.

The poll which included 1.113 companies from Sao Paulo state showed that 91% of those interviewed, personally favor the impeachment process, while only 5.9% were against and 3.1% did not reply.

When questioned specifically about the different companies positions, the poll showed that 85.4% supported impeachment, 4.9% was against and 9.7% did not know what to reply.

”The opinion poll was endorsed by all the chambers of our House (FIESP)“ pointed out Skaf who strongly denied he was condemning the president and defended that the procedure must comply strictly with the constitutional steps.

The poll also indicated that 91.9% of FIESP members wanted the federation to make official its position regarding impeachment, whether for or against.

Last Sunday FIESP was active in the protests against the Rousseff administration complaining about the planned increase in taxes and levies, mainly reimposing the controversial tax on checks and financial flows. It displayed an inflated yellow duckling with its demands.

But FIESP attitude has not been unanimous in public opinion. In effect, a former radical lawmaker Adriano Diogo, recalled that ”the duckling reminds us all of the role played by FIESP during the military coup (1964), of which the organization is proud but should be ashamed of for supporting the 21 years of military dictatorship that followed“.

”The same way that back in 1964, FIESP financed coup mongers to organize and throw down elected president Joao Goulart, with arms, buying union leaders and organizing free trips for Armed Forces officers, now FIESP is allied with the speaker of the Lower House Cunha in his attempt to throw down Dilma Rousseff”, said Diogo who is currently chairman of the Sao Paulo Truth Commission.