Brazil's beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff won a respite in her battle to avoid impeachment when the Supreme Court ordered the commission considering her case suspended for a week.
At the end of a day of political drama and chaos yesterday, the court in Brasilia suspended the special commission that had just been formed to recommend to Congress whether Rousseff should be removed from office.
The suspension, made in response to an appeal from the Communist Party of Brazil, which is allied to the leftist Workers' Party of Rousseff, is in effect until next Wednesday when the court will meet to make a ruling.
The appeal claimed irregularities in the way the commission was formed, with Rousseff loyalists complaining that opposition leaders had unfairly managed to force out members who were more sympathetic to the president.
"The court understood that the allegations are relevant. There is the risk that everything which has been done would come to nothing. So they suspended all work of the commission until December 16," Ademar Borges, a Communist Party lawyer, told AFP.
This gave much needed breathing space to Rousseff, who less than a year into her second term is fighting for her political life.
Brazil's first female president, a moderate leftist, is accused of illegal budgeting maneuvers, but says the practices were long accepted by previous governments. She calls the attempt to bring her down a "coup."
The turmoil is stirring passions across the South American country of 204 million people, where Rousseff's Workers' Party has been in power since 2003 with the help of its often uncomfortable coalition partner, the centrist PMDB.
Nationwide opposition rallies are planned Sunday and on Tuesday Rousseff supporters marched in central Rio de Janeiro, which will host the 2016 Olympics.
Political uncertainty is also adding to the economic mess, with GDP down 4.5 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, and the national currency down a third against the dollar this year. A vast corruption scandal centered on state oil giant Petrobras has also put a hole in investor confidence.
With only 10 per cent popularity ratings Rousseff has little political muscle, even if supporters say that the charges against her are far from the level justifying impeachment.
Yesterday, 16 of the country's 27 state governors declared that the impeachment case lacks constitutional foundation.
Rousseff was left reeling by indications in a leaked letter that her vice president Michel Temer, leader of the PMDB, could withdraw his support because he felt she had shown "absolute lack of confidence" in him. If Rousseff is forced from office, Temer would become interim president.
