If Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff is impeached by the Senate, it will spark demand for new presidential elections, a former member of her cabinet said on Monday.

Miguel Rossetto, a fellow member of the leftist Workers' Party (PT) and former Minister of Agricultural Development, said a vote to impeach Rousseff would launch the "Direct Elections Now" movement.

Brazilians did not vote for the right-leaning interim government that has succeeded Rousseff and aims to see through her term through 2018, he said.

Brazil's Senate is expected to vote for or against impeachment by Wednesday the latest.

Rossetto, one of Rousseff's closest former aides, said the PT and other social groups will mobilize street protests to call for new elections, rather than having the interim government officially instated.

"If this process (impeachment) passes, a movement for Direct Elections Now should be immediately launched," said Rossetto.

The majority of Brazilians are not going to accept the "regressive agenda" of interim President Michel Temer's government,  he added.

The trial sidelined Rousseff and the left-leaning PT, bringing Temer of the conservative Brazilian Social Democracy Party to power.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by XinHua News Agency

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