The pressure on Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, is growing as cracks in the ruling coalition widen after a congressional committee’s vote supporting her impeachment. The 11 April decision raises the odds that business-oriented vice-president Michel Temer could assume power. But the country’s increasing political polarisation suggests that even Rousseff’s removal will do little to allow the government to refocus its attention on addressing Brazil’s deepening economic problems. The impeachment vote follows recent allegations that illicit payments helped fund Rousseff’s 2010 and 2014 presidential election campaigns. Domestic construction firm Andrade Gutierrez is alleged to have made campaign donations through inflated contracts for work related to state-controlled oil firm Petrobras’ 165,000 b/d Comperj refinery, the 11.2GW Belo Monte hydroelectric complex and other major infrastructure projects.
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