Dilma Rousseff Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (, often known mononymously as Dilma; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th President of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016, becoming the first democratically-elected female president in the world to be impeached and removed. She was the first woman to hold the Brazilian presidency and had previously served as Chief of Staff to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010. The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, Rousseff was raised in an
2010 Brazilian presidential election with a limit of two consecutive terms. Lula was thus not eligible to stand again as he has already served two terms after winning the elections in 2002 and being re-elected in 2006. This was the first time since the inaugural presidential election after the military dictatorship that he did not run for president. The candidates of the two major political groups of the country were Lula's former Chief of Staff, Dilma Rousseff, of the ruling centre-left democratic socialist/social democratic Workers' Party (PT), and São Paulo State former governor, José Serra, from the centre-right opposition coalition formed mainly by the