Brazil to impeach president Dilma Rousseff

Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff will face impeachment proceedings in Congress, according to lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha.

Cunha told reporters in Brasilia he profoundly regrets what’s happening.

“May our country overcome this process,” he said.

The impeachment process could take months, involving several votes in Congress that ultimately may result in the president being ousted.

Rousseff would challenge any impeachment proceedings in the Supreme Court, according to a government official with direct knowledge of her defence strategy.

The speaker’s decision will put the president’s support in Congress to a test after government and opposition spent months trying to rally politicians to their sides.

The move also threatens to paralyse Rousseff’s economic agenda as she focuses on saving her political life rather than reviving growth.

Backed by Brazil’s leading opposition parties, the impeachment request accuses Rousseff of breaching Brazil’s fiscal responsibility law in 2014 and 2015.

The country’s top auditors in October recommended Congress reject her accounts, saying the administration used fiscal manoeuvres to hide a budget deficit last year.

The government has denied wrongdoing.