Brazil's Rousseff gains time to avert impeachment

He broke away from the ruling Workers Party and has come out in support of impeaching the recently reelected head of state.

Congressional lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha told reporters his appeal would be lodged "by Friday".

In Brazilian law, a potential impeachment process can be launched by the President of the House Eduardo Cunha, who is considered the gatekeeper of the impeachment process. She would be banned from public office for eight years. According to the Supreme Court injunctions, legislators for now can not vote to revive a petition and start impeachment proceedings if Cunha rejects a plea.

A group of Brazilian political parties, led by the Party of Socialism and Freedom, submitted a formal request to the Ethics Council of the Chamber of Deputies asking for the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, to be removed from his post.

"The fact that I have to take decisions that a few might see as a truce and others as a war is only a question of interpretation", Cunha said in response to the rumor.

Mendes asked the Federal Police to probe whether Rousseff's campaign received a few of the estimated $2 billion that was diverted from state-controlled oil company Petrobras as part of a decade-long contract-rigging and kickback scheme. Cunha said he has three impeachment requests to decide on.

For now, Rousseff appears to have enough votes to block impeachment, but that could change as Brazil's political crisis deepens.

"Now there is a serious risk because it all rests on his hands, and if he wants to opt for it, then a serious process begins", Aragão said.

Aragão, however, predicts that the country's Congress could be "completely paralysed" on the discussion of the impeachment.

But Rousseff has lost support in Congress as her popularity stays near record lows and the economy sinks into its worst recession in 25 years.

Brazil's federal police have opened a preliminary investigation into alleged irregularities in President Dilma Rousseff's re-election campaign previous year.

"This was the most probable scenario, and could be more fuel on the government's crisis", he added.

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Prosecutor's Office was allowed to investigate allegations of corruption against Mr Cunha.

Similar investigations into governors' campaigns by Brazil's electoral courts took two and a half years to be concluded.

"So the electoral court is investigating, but it is unlikely they will go further and cancel Dilma and Michel's ticket", Aragão explained.