Daunting tasks ahead for likely Brazilian interim president, with no room for mistakes

Brazil’s impeachment of its president will serve little on its own, but must be the catalyst to drive changes in a country languishing, writes Luiz Felipe d’Avila

BRAZIL’S political crisis appears to be coming to a head. Now that the lower house of the National Congress has voted in favour of President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment for violating fiscal rules, the senate’s 81 members will vote in the coming days on whether to try her.

If 42 agree, she will be suspended for up to 180 days, during which time vice-president Michel Temer will assume the presidency. If the senate does not produce a two-thirds vote for conviction during that period, Rousseff will return to the presidency. The most likely outcome, it seems, will be for Temer to carry out the final two years of Rousseff’s term.