By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Yesterday (August 2nd) the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil rejected charges of passive corruption against President Michel Temer. With the result, Temer will not face a Supreme Court trial and the accusations presented by federal prosecutor Rodrigo Janot can only be resubmitted after the President leaves office, in December 2018.
Wednesday’s session in the Chamber included hours of heated debates and speeches for and against Temer, inflated puppets made to look like politicians and fake money thrown at lawmakers. The final count, however, tipped in favor of Brazil’s leader, with 263 representatives voting to reject the accusations, while 227 lawmakers voting to continue investigations.
After the rejection by the Chamber, President Temer released a statement in which he vows to continue with the reforms and actions he deems necessary to modernize and improve the country.
“Faced with this eloquent decision, I can say that we will move forward with the necessary actions to complete the work that my government started just over a year ago,” said Temer.
Temer also noted the reforms passed by Congress during his Administration and the improvement of the Brazilian economy, “We will do much more by putting, as we are doing, our accounts in order, in a definite and balanced way. And we will also do all the other structural reforms that the country needs. ”
For opposition lawmakers however, Wednesday’s result shows that the current government does not have enough allies in Congress to approve many of the reforms desired by Temer.
“The government won the battle but not the war,” the Chamber’s minority leader, José Guimarães told reporters. “It lost strength, lost credibility and lost governability, which was the only thing that sustained the Temer government,” concluded.