Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th President of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Rousseff, then more than 12 months into her second four-year term, was charged with criminal administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget in violation of article 85, items V and VI of the Constitution of Brazil and the , article 36. The petition also accused Rousseff of criminal responsibility for failing to act on the scandal at
Dilma Rousseff presidential candidate for the Workers' Party in the 2010 presidential election. At that time, former São Paulo State Governor José Serra, candidate for the center-right opposition bloc, had been at the top of the polls for over two years. With promises of maintaining Lula's popular policies, Rousseff was able to surpass Serra in all the polls by late July. In spite of maintaining a wide margin over him, she did not receive 50% of valid votes in the first round and had to face a run-off against Serra on 31 October, when she was elected with over 56% of the