Michel Temer Vow as the Brazil’s New President
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia has sworn the Brazil’s new president on Wednesday, ending an impeachment process that polarized Latin America’s biggest country amid a massive corruption scandal and brutal economic crisis. In his first televised address to the nation after being sworn in as president through 2018, Temer called on Brazilians to unite behind him in working to rescue the economy from a fiscal crisis and over 11 percent unemployment.
“This moment is one of hope and recovery of confidence in Brazil. Uncertainty has ended,” Temer said in the speech broadcast after his departure for a G20 summit in China. Temer will likely face tough opposition from the Workers Party both on the streets and in Congress to his agenda of privatizations, reforms to Brazil’s generous pension and welfare laws and a public spending ceiling he hopes lawmakers will pass this year.
Temer’s government risks entanglement in the ongoing investigation into kickbacks at Petrobras, which ensnared dozens of politicians in Rousseff’s coalition. Three of Temer’s ministers have already had to step down due to links to the scandal, which could hobble efforts to restore confidence. Rousseff became the first Brazilian leader dismissed from office since 1992, when Fernando Collor de Mello resigned before a final vote in his impeachment trial for corruption.
|