Brazil's Congress is expected to reopen the door for a modest pension overhaul as soon as October, lawmakers said before returning to normal business on Thursday following a vote to block a corruption trial against President Michel Temer. Still, legislators warned that Temer must spend some of his newfound political capital either on measures raising tax revenue or a new, less ambitious 2017 budget target.
Brazilian federal judge Sergio Moro, the man behind Brazil's largest ever corruption investigation, said there is still lack of interest from the country's political establishment to fight corruption, despite the political and economic crisis the practice sent the country into.
Brazilian lawmakers tossed out a corruption charge against scandal-plagued President Michel Temer on Wednesday, saving the conservative leader from becoming the country’s second leader in 12 months to be forced from office. Despite hugely embarrassing bribery allegations, Temer had been expected to survive.
August has been a devastating month for Brazilian presidents, 31 days in which they have been impeached or resigned. One even committed suicide, Getulio Vargas in 1954, and for Michel Temer's own predecessor, ex president Dilma Rousseff, it was her demise when she was removed last Aug. 31 for breaking fiscal rules in her management of the budget.
The Brazilian Congress will return from recess this week and could bring back political uncertainty fears to local markets, as lawmakers are set to decide on Wednesday if the Supreme Court should trial President Michel Temer for corruption. Temer was formally charged with passive corruption by the prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot at the end of last month.
Brazil's government increased a spending freeze and raised taxes to cover a budget gap this year, reinforcing its commitment to fiscal discipline but dealing a potential blow to fragile economic growth. In a statement by the Finance and Planning Ministries, the government said it will freeze an additional 5.9 billion Reais (US$1.9 billion) in federal spending this year
Land-grabbing follows a long well-established pattern in the Brazilian Amazon, closely linked to lobbies and political interests, and again as in previous circumstances, this time embattled president Michel Temer signed legislation, previously approved by Congress, which regularizes such illegal claims.
Brazilian President Michel Temer looked on track on Thursday to avoid trial over graft charges, after a committee of lawmakers recommended the accusations against him be shelved ahead of a congressional vote. If the matter is put aside, Temer would win some respite.
The speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress, Rodrigo Maia, vowed on Wednesday to fight any changes President Michel Temer makes to a landmark labor reform passed by the Senate a day earlier, highlighting fresh tension between longtime allies.
The Brazilian Senate gave final congressional approval to an unpopular overhaul of the country's labor laws on Tuesday night, providing crucial political support to embattled President Michel Temer as he fights a damaging corruption accusation.