Dilma Rousseff and the Chronic Dysfunction of Brazil’s Politics

Early last Thursday morning, after Brazil’s senators voted to begin an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, fireworks crackled in cities around the country. Rousseff was out at last. During her five and a half years in office, she had presided over the country’s deepest recession since the nineteen-thirties, and had been caught in the middle of a giant corruption scandal. Thursday’s vote forced her to step down for the duration of the impeachment trial, and no one expects her to return to power. But by the standards of the recent mass protests against Rousseff, Thursday’s celebrations were muted. In Brasília, the capital, a news photographer’s lens captured a plume of smoke from fireworks rising above the vast lawn of the Esplanade of Ministries, near the National Congress building, where a small group of demonstrators had gathered. Most Brazilians had wanted to see Rousseff go—but now they had to worry about what comes next.