Political instability in Brazil was deepened by a supreme court ruling on Tuesday which said that the country’s vice president must face impeachment proceedings.
Michel Temer is facing charges of breaking fiscal regulations. He had been in line to replace President Dilma Rousseff if she is impeached. Tuesday’s ruling, however, means that he is also at risk of being forced out of office.
A congressional committee is debating whether to remove the president for breaking fiscal rules before she was re-elected in 2014. An impeachment vote is expected around the middle of April.
Justice Marco Aurélio Mello said the lower house must discuss the vice-president’s fate because he is accused of the same charges as Rousseff. The judgment could yet be appealed.
Senior lawmakers have begun to call for an early election. But the electoral court is already discussing a separate allegation of campaign funding violations. Any attempt it made to nullify the 2014 result could take more than a year.
It is not clear if congress would approve early elections. It is deeply divided and tainted by the widescale corruption investigation at the state-run oil company Petrobras.
Any legislative debate in the senate would have to be scheduled by the speaker of the house, Eduardo Cunha, who initiated impeachment proceedings against the president, despite being accused of taking more than $5m in the Petrobras scandal, but his congressional position provides immunity from prosecution by lower courts.
Massive street demonstrations in much of the country have taken place in recent weeks - something the government would like to quell before tensions lead to violence.
