Criminal charges against Brazilian President Michel Temer are the latest blow to a reform agenda designed to jump start Latin America’s largest economy, as the nation’s capital prepares for another drawn out political showdown.
Chief public prosecutor Rodrigo Janot on Monday night pressed corruption charges against Temer in an unprecedented development that may put the embattled president of Latin America’s largest economy on trial.
With the prospect of more charges from Janot in coming weeks, the Supreme Court weighing in on proceedings and Congress having to vote on whether to open a potentially lengthy trial, politics stands to overshadow the economic agenda in coming weeks.
“Now it’s become even more difficult to vote anything,” said Luis Antonio Covatti, a lawmaker from the Progressive Party in Temer’s ruling coalition. “The government will use all its energy to survive.”
The real dropped 0.9 percent in morning trading amid a broader sell-off in the emerging currency market. The Sao Paulo stock exchange inched lower.
Temer is likely to muster the necessary votes — just over one-third — in Brazil’s chamber of deputies to block a trial, said Cleber Verde, head of the PRB party in the lower house.
If it does go ahead and he is found guilty he would be stripped of office and could be jailed.