Results of panel voting in the Senate during the trial of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, August 2016. AP Photo / Eraldo Peres 31. All rights reserved.
Francesc Badia: Mr. Wyllys, thank you for offering your time to democraciaAbierta. Brazil is facing a deep, threefold crisis: an economic crisis, a social crisis and a political crisis. Which of the three do you think is more decisive?
Jean Wyllys: We are coming out of a global crisis, an economic and financial crisis that hit not only developed countries but also developing countries. Everyone felt the impact, but in Brazil our plutocracy and our oligarchs used the economic crisis to promote a political crisis, a destabilization of the duly elected government. This political crisis, which originated within the political system itself, from a dispute between parties and coalitions, got worse as it was transferred, through biased and partisan information, to Brazilian society, especially the middle class, thus giving it a social character. So, the economic crisis split into a political crisis, which in turn split into a social crisis, resulting in a parliamentary coup under the guise of an impeachment that hit President Dilma Rousseff. The president was then removed from office by Congress, first by the House of Representatives and now by the Senate.
