"Impeachment will leave deep scars," says Dilma to the international press

In an interview with foreign newspapers, the president says he will not resign and will use all possible legal means to prevent exit from office. Rousseff warns of increasing intolerance in the country.




In an interview with foreign newspapers on Thursday (24/03), President Dilma Rousseff assured that will not give up and will use all legal means to avoid impeachment.

"Why do 'they' want me to resign? Because I am a weak woman? I'm not," says the report published by the British newspaper The Guardian.
Rousseff described the impeachment as an attempted coup and said that his departure might disrupt the democratic order and leave a "deep scar" in Brazilian politics.

The President pointed out that the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), set in motion the impeachment process because the government has not barred an investigation into his accounts in Switzerland in the Ethics Committee of the House.
"They ask me to lay down to avoid the taint of having placed in progress, illegal, improper and criminal way, the removal process to an elected president," he told reporters.

According to the American newspaper The New York Times, the president used a "challenging" tone. The interview of nearly two hours was given to six corresponding international publications in Brazil, among them the German newspaper Die Zeit and the French Le Monde.

Rousseff also said that there was no illegality in the appointment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as chief minister of the Civil House, whom he called "partner." The president, who is the subject of proceedings in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that may result in a possible impeachment, claimed that there were irregularities in campaign donations during the presidential elections in 2014.

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Criticizing the telephone interceptions authorized by Federal Judge Sergio Moro, responsible for Operation Lava Jato, Dilma said that a magistrate must be "impartial".

The President expressed concern over what he called the growing intolerance in the country. About the protests in favor of impeachment, Rousseff said it is not nice to be booed, but sleeping "well all night." "We have never seen so much intolerance in Brazil. We are not an intolerant people," he said.

As determined by the Minister Teori Zavaski, the Supreme Court (STF), Moro sent to the court of the investigations of Lava Jato involving Lula, family and people linked to the former president.

The judge also ruled Curitiba secrecy for the 26th stage of the operation, dubbed "Xepa". On Wednesday, Moro put secret justice a list of Odebrecht construction company payments to political situation and opposition.