“I did not commit the crimes that I am unjustly accused” - Dilma Rousseff

Rousseff arrived Monday at Brazil’s Senate for a dramatic finale to an impeachment trial likely ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest country.

Brazil’s suspended president Dilma Rousseff denied Monday that she had committed an impeachable crime, as she defended herself before senators preparing to vote on removing her from office.

“I did not commit the crimes that I am unjustly accused of,” the 68-year-old leftist leader said in an address to the Senate, repeating her claim that the impeachment drive was a “coup.”

Rousseff, 68, was greeted by cheering supporters as she arrived in the Senate to testify for the first time in her defense, just hours before senators were to start voting on her fate.

“Dilma, warrior of the Brazilian homeland!” the crowd of supporters shouted.

Rousseff is accused of having taken illegal state loans to patch budget holes. Momentum to push her out is also fuelled by deep anger at Brazil’s historic recession, political paralysis and a vast corruption scandal centred on state oil giant Petrobras.

The first female president of Brazil, who says she did nothing worthy of impeachment, was to speak for about half an hour from the podium, then face questioning from allies and opponents.

It was unclear whether Rousseff would repeat her explosive claim on the Senate floor that the trial is a coup d’etat aimed at destroying her Workers’ Party and restoring the right to power.

However, the packed Senate chamber crackled with tension.

Rousseff came to the showdown accompanied by heavyweight allies, including her presidential predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and a dozen former cabinet members.

A small crowd of loyalists gathered from early morning outside the Senate and supporters shouted “Dilma come back!” from cars as they drove past the building’s entrance.

However, there appeared to be little Rousseff could say to save her presidency.

Closing arguments will begin after her testimony Monday, followed by voting, possibly extending into Wednesday. Opponents say they will easily reach the needed two-thirds majority — 54 of 81 senators — to remove her from office.

In that case, Rousseff’s former vice president turned political enemy, Michel Temer, will be confirmed as president until elections in 2018.

Temer, from the center-right PMDB party, has already been acting president since May, using his brief period in power to steer the government rightward.

He plans to leave Tuesday or Wednesday on his first official foreign trip, a G20 summit in China, where officials say he will push to restore the tattered reputation of Brazil’s economy.

Criticized for lacking a popular touch or appetite for backroom politicking, Rousseff has barely double digit approval ratings.

However, supporters outside the Senate said they backed Rousseff’s claim to be victim of trumped up charges in a rightwing coup.

“I am fighting to defend democracy and the dignity of the people. This has been a persecution against the Workers’ Party, Dilma and the Brazilian people,” said one of about 100 protesters outside the Senate, retired teacher Marlene Bastos, 65.

Although most Brazilians have abandoned Rousseff, there is lingering sympathy for a woman who was imprisoned and tortured by the military dictatorship in the 1970s for belonging to a far left urban guerrilla cell.

Although her presidency has been mired in the Petrobras embezzlement and bribery scandal, Rousseff herself has never been charged with trying to enrich herself — unlike many of her prominent accusers and close allies. 

Temer is hardly more popular, according to opinion polls. He faces harsh questioning over his legitimacy as an unelected president and was loudly booed at the recent Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.

The impeachment case rests on narrow charges that Rousseff took unauthorized state loans to bridge budget shortfalls during her 2014 election to a second term.

Allies have spent the Senate trial arguing that these loans were nothing more than stopgap measures frequently employed by previous governments. 

Opponents, however, have broadened the accusation to paint Rousseff’s loans as part of her disastrous mismanagement, contributing to once booming Brazil’s slide into recession.

Brazil’s economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is forecast to drop a further 3.3 percent this year, the worst performance since the 1930s. Inflation stands at around nine percent and unemployment at 11 percent.

Rousseff’s side says that decline was caused by forces far beyond the president’s control, notably a worldwide slump in commodity prices, which hit exports hard.