MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil’s ex president Temer admits that Rousseff's impeachment was a “coup”

Arrested twice this year for corruption, he said he never supported the process that ended with the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil former president, Michel Temer, described for the first time the dismissal of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff as a “coup”, as the left marks the political trial that removed the ex-president of the Workers Party from power.

The statement made by Temer during an interview broadcast Monday night on Cultura Television on Tuesday generated a great impact in Brazil and is one of the most discussed issues on the country's social networks.

Temer, president between 2016 and 2019, this year was arrested twice for corruption. He said he never supported the “coup”, as the progressive Workers Party and other sectors of the left qualify the dismissal of Rousseff (2011-2016).

The Brazilian Congress opened a political trial against Rousseff in 2016 due to irregular maneuvers to square public accounts. After his departure, the then president was replaced in the position by Temer, who at the time was his vice president.

The 78-year-old former president defended himself Monday night from accusations made against him, who, still in his capacity as vice president, was one of the articulators of the political trial that deprived Rousseff of power.

“I could not articulate a coup because the government would get very bad,” Temer said during yesterday’s interview.

Temer was a companion of Dilma Rousseff's formula since her first term, in 2011, but after the political trial he distanced himself completely from the PT, a formation led by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and accused him of “coup leader”.

Still as president, Temer became the center of a corruption scandal and was the center of various complaints, although he was not prosecuted during his term because criminal acts were allegedly committed before he became President.

Temer left power on January 1, 2019 after the victory of the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro and this year he was arrested twice for corruption, although he is currently responding to the accusations released.

With information from EFE