Key leaders in the governing coalition of embattled Brazilian President Michel Temer are speculating about who might replace him if he is forced from office by a corruption scandal — frank talk that underscores his fragile grasp on power.
Brazil’s top prosecutor has opened investigations into the president for alleged obstruction of justice and passive corruption.
Temer, then-vice president, rose to the presidency a little more than a year ago when then-Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was suspended and then removed for illegally managing the federal budget.
Photo: AFP
Temer’s administration has lurched from one crisis to another, the latest being the emergence of a recording that apparently captures him endorsing hush money for a former lawmaker serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Temer denies wrongdoing and has vowed not to resign.
If he resigns or is forced out, the Brazilian Congress would vote on a new leader to finish the term, which goes through next year.
On both Thursday and Friday, leaders of the right-leaning Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a junior partner in Temer’s governing coalition, skipped chances to support him and instead talked about who might come next.
Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin said that former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Brazilian Senator Tasso Jereissati would be good candidates to replace Temer if he should be removed.
Alckmin, who himself plans to run in next year’s presidential election, ruled himself out for the possible vote that might choose a president and a vice president until December next year.
The governor, who lost the 2006 presidential election to then-Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said his party has to “support the government, support Brazil” so that austerity measures and unpopular reforms get through Congress.
Speaking on Thursday night, Jereissati declined to give open support for Temer remaining in office.
However, he said the embattled leader would be consulted in case he is pushed out and there is an election.
Jereissati was appointed party chairman after his predecessor, Brazilian Senator Aecio Neves, was engulfed in the same probe.
Jereissati said his party will decide whether to break away from Temer after the country’s top electoral court rules on whether the 2014 campaign of Rousseff and Temer received illegal financing.
A ruling is expected early next month.
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