Brazil's Rousseff says no cabinet changes before impeachment vote

BRASILIA Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday said she is not planning a cabinet reshuffle, ignoring calls for immediate changes in her administration that would help secure political support to defeat an upcoming impeachment vote.


Since Rousseff's main coalition partner, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), broke away last week her government has offered jobs and pork barrel to other wavering allies ahead of an impeachment vote in the lower house expected for mid-April.


Her Workers' Party has called for the replacement of the six PMDB ministers still in office to strengthen her new alliance.


It was not immediately clear why Rousseff had decided not to switch out cabinet positions ahead of the crucial vote.


"The presidential palace does not intend to make any cabinet changes before the impeachment vote," Rousseff told reporters in Brasilia.


Her Vice President Michel Temer stepped aside as the head of the PMDB on Tuesday, ceding leadership of Brazil's biggest party temporarily to Senator Romero Juca. One of Temer's aides told Reuters he wanted to avoid responding to attacks against the PMDB following its decision to abandon Rousseff and support impeachment proceedings.


A special committee in the lower house is expected to vote soon on whether Rousseff broke the law by allegedly doctoring Brazil's fiscal accounts to hide a massive budget deficit before her 2014 reelection.


The committee's recommendation will be voted on in the lower house and its decision is expected to sway lower house deputies still undecided on whether to call for Rousseff's impeachment.


"Any attempt to make that the motive for impeachment is a coup," Rousseff told journalists. "It is a coup because it lacks any legal grounds."


(Writing by Alonso Soto; Editing by Reese Ewing and Andrew Hay)




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