MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's main opposition party insists in removing speaker of the Lower House

PSDB lawmakers said it was unacceptable that the third-most powerful person in the country be accused of corruption and money laundering.

The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), the largest opposition force in the country, demanded that the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, be removed from office for alleged involvement in corruption detected in state oil company Petrobras.

 The PSDB transmitted its position through a statement in which the party argues that Cunha should be immediately suspended from his post in the Lower House due to the “serious allegations” leveled against him.

PSDB lawmakers said it was unacceptable that the third-most powerful person in the country be accused of corruption and money laundering. Cunha is being investigated for undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.

“Eduardo Cunha has not properly explained himself,” said Carlos Sampaio (PSDB) in the statement, who until recently was willing to give the Lower House speaker the benefit of the doubt. “He has not convinced the PSDB bloc nor the Brazilian people. He has just made loose allegations, without the necessary support and evidence.”

According to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Cunha’s close allies claimed he was “furious” about the PSDB move. They said he felt “betrayed” by a party he believed to be one of his main supporters.

PSDB General Secretary Silvio Costa, welcomed his party’s unanimous decision to demand Cunha’s exit, saying that “in times of crisis, parliament must maintain its prestige and seek a solution to its difficulties.”

According to Brazilian police, Cunha received at least US$5 million in bribes through the oil company’s corruption scandal and then hid it in secret Swiss bank accounts.

The speaker of the Lower House has repeatedly denied having offshore bank accounts, although the Swiss justice system has sent a series of documents to Brazil which allegedly prove Cunha has accounts in that country.

Cunha has so far managed to retain his post even after the Board of Ethics of the Lower House initiated a probe into the leader’s economic activity.

In its statement, the PSDB did not comment directly on the possibility that Cunha could lose his job, but demanded that he be “separated” from the presidency at least until a decision is taken on his case.

Cunha is a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), led by the Vice-President Michel Temer. However, a few months ago he announced he was withdrawing his support for President Dilma Rousseff.

Cunha received backing yesterday from Paulo Pereira da Silva, whose Solidariedade party recently filed a request for Rousseff’s impeachment.

“The only way we can start a process against Rousseff is by keeping Cunha as president,” said Pereira.

In his role as president of the Chamber of Deputies, Cunha has the constitutional power to decide on whether the four impeachment requests that the opposition has presented against Rousseff, one by the PSDB, can be given course.

The requests are based on a federal audit court ruling that her government manipulated its accounts to disguise the size of the deficit and allow for more spending in the run-up to her narrow re-election last year.