Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff Accuses Opposition of Coup-Mongering

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has accused her political opponents of seeking to oust her government by “coup-mongering”.

Speaking at a meeting of union leaders in Sao Paulo on October 13, Dilma Rousseff also said the opposition was spreading hatred and intolerance across Brazil.

Dilma Rousseff’s comments come after an audit court last week ruled that she broke the law in managing last year’s budget.

The opposition says this could pave the way for impeachment proceedings.

President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected less than a year ago but currently has record low popularity ratings.

Addressing the gathering, Dilma Rousseff accused the opposition of practicing “deliberate coup-mongering” against a “project that has successfully lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty”.

“The artificiality of their arguments is absolute, their poisoning of people in social networks, their relentless game of <<the worse she does, the better for us>>,” she was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Dilma Rousseff’s remarks follow the ruling of the Federal Accounts Court on accusations that the government borrowed money illegally from state banks to make up for budget shortfalls.

The minister who handled the case in the court, Augusto Nardes, said the government disregarded fiscal and constitutional principles in the handling of the 2014 accounts.

The irregularities amount to more than 100 billion reais ($26 billion), according to the court.

The opposition said after the ruling it would seek impeachment proceedings in the Congress.

Also last week, Brazil’s top electoral authority said it would re-open an investigation into alleged misuse of funds during Dilma Rousseff’s re-election campaign.

The Brazilian economy has gone into recession and is expected to shrink by 3% in 2015.

The government’s popularity has fallen amid corruption scandals involving senior politicians from Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party and other coalition members.