Speaker 1: This is taking stock with Pim Fox and Kathleen Hayes
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. Til Marussof, the president of Brazil, could
Speaker 1: be hours away from being forced out of office, at
Speaker 1: least temporarily. Let's find out the details from Raymond. Call
Speaker 1: it he is Bloomberg Bureau chief joining us from Brazilia
Speaker 1: in Brazil. Raymond, thank you for joining us. Tell us
Speaker 1: the latest. What is going on right now? The debate
Speaker 1: in the Senate, the upper house of Brazil's Congress, started
Speaker 1: this morning. It's a bit behind schedule. Only twelve of
Speaker 1: the sixty three senators that signed up to speak have
Speaker 1: done so so far, so we're expecting this actually to
Speaker 1: go well into the night or the early morning hours
Speaker 1: of Thursday. UM. The latest polls show that the opposition
Speaker 1: will have the votes to have her stand a trial
Speaker 1: and and and stepped down temporarily, meaning that the Vice President,
Speaker 1: Michelle Tamer will will power takeover UM sometime on Thursday.
Speaker 1: So what has been delmo recess biggest sin? Please explain
Speaker 1: to our listeners. Is it a recession? Is it a
Speaker 1: budget deficit that wants to get into control? Is it
Speaker 1: a taint of scandal that's a good question. I mean, technically,
Speaker 1: the charges against her in the Senate currently is for
Speaker 1: having illegally used tapped into state banks UH to finance
Speaker 1: a budget deficit. Now, obviously it goes much further than that.
Speaker 1: There's a sense that she mismanaged the economy in recent years.
Speaker 1: The budget deficit, for example, tripled in only two years
Speaker 1: UM to to around ten per of GDP. Inflation is
Speaker 1: way above target, there's no investor confidence, UM, the economies
Speaker 1: in its worst recession in over a century. UM. So
Speaker 1: you get a picture of Brazilians are not happy. They're
Speaker 1: not happy with their president. And this is not entirely
Speaker 1: a legal process. In other words, it's not based only
Speaker 1: on legal facts, but it is also a political process.
Speaker 1: Hence it went to Congress and not to the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court for her to stand trial. Can you outline the
Speaker 1: process of what happens next if indeed she is impeached?
Speaker 1: As I said that, we're expecting the vote sometime late
Speaker 1: to night early tomorrow morning. Then the Senate officially UH
Speaker 1: communicates the the vote to the president she will have
Speaker 1: to step down. The Senate also decides under what conditions
Speaker 1: what kind of privileges does she maintain? If any she
Speaker 1: for example, she's likely to stay in the presidential palace
Speaker 1: but probably won't be able to, you know, use the
Speaker 1: presidential plane and those kinds of things. Then hours later
Speaker 1: the Vice President takes over UM as acting presidents and
Speaker 1: in essence that the country will be in his hands.
Speaker 1: A very few people expect rusself to be able to
Speaker 1: bounce back to find the support in in in the
Speaker 1: Senate to avoid a definitive ousta with a two thirds
Speaker 1: majority in the Senate. So Raymon, tell us more about
Speaker 1: Vice President Michael Tamayer. Uh, there is a question of
Speaker 1: what kind of leader he would be. Delmo Roussef herself
Speaker 1: has accused him throughout this process of deliberately undermining her
Speaker 1: prolotting to get her out of office. What's he like?
Speaker 1: How would he? But what is for his prospects vetted
Speaker 1: in Brazil well, the financial markets, of course, UH see
Speaker 1: him very favorably. He's more of a business friendly UM
Speaker 1: person than than Dilma was. Thema, of course, from a
Speaker 1: leftist party, from the Workers Party. UM. Timor has already
Speaker 1: outlined some of his economic policies. Downsized government, try to
Speaker 1: cut spending, give more room to the private sector, especially
Speaker 1: in the oil industry and telecommunications. So for for the
Speaker 1: better part of this year, financial markets have been been rallying. Now,
Speaker 1: as we said, there are also some clouds hanging over
Speaker 1: Michelle timer Um One is several of his aids, closest
Speaker 1: allies within his own party are being investigated in the
Speaker 1: same corruption probe that essentially rattled Brazil's political establishment, including
Speaker 1: roussef In over the past two years. So that that
Speaker 1: is a big caveat that that he faces that some
Speaker 1: of his closest aids maybe become involved in the same
Speaker 1: scandal as well. And the political establishment as a whole
Speaker 1: is not very popular. As a matter of fact, two
Speaker 1: thirds close to two thirds of the Brazilians are extremely disenchanted,
Speaker 1: and that is something that will make his life difficult
Speaker 1: when he tries to push for more austerity measures to
Speaker 1: put the economy back on track. Thanks for spending time
Speaker 1: with us and bringing us up to date, Raymond call
Speaker 1: It is Bloomberg bureau chief in Brazilia and the Brazilian
Speaker 1: Ebovespa index, the stock index is up nearly four so
Speaker 1: far this year.