Opposition parties and citizens are calling for the impeachment of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, among the growing corruption allegations. Specifically, these allegations involve the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic in regards to vaccinations and the lack of responsive measures.
Super impeachment request
Brazilians are protesting for the removal of Jair Bolsonaro as president due to corruption allegations regarding the purchasing and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. A super impeachment document has been submitted to the national assembly. The collective request to remove the far-right president from power combines multiple former impeachment documents and requests.
Brazil’s Green Party (Partido Verde) are among those entities that signed the request. In multiple statements on their website and social media platforms, the party has expressed their strong desire for the president’s removal and how a collective effort could succeed. A super impeachment approach could have more value to it as it expresses a larger unhappy collective.
Along with the improper handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Partido Verde expressed a multitude of other problems surrounding Bolsonaro’s governance:
Crimes denounced by Partido Verde are liability crimes involving Indigenous health and distribution of medicines without scientific proof [and] the dismantling of Brazilian environmental policies, especially in the administration of Ricardo Salles in the Ministry of Environment.
Partido Verde in a statement explaining their involvement in the super impeachment request, it can be found on their website
In the same statement Partido Verde reassured that they will continue to advocate for environmental protection and policies.
Corruption allegations
President Bolsonaro has faced multiple scandals throughout his tenure, however his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines prompted Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber, to open an investigation against the president . Officials in Bolsonaro’s government such as Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry’s import division said they have faced pressure to approve the acquisition of millions of vaccine doses from India. Irregularities in vaccine invoicing have been flagged by Miranda and other government officials.
Brazil has registered over half a million COVID-19 deaths to date, with a weak 11.8% of the population vaccinated. An inquiry in Brazil’s senate found evidence of alleged corrupt vaccine purchases in regards to the acquirement of India’s Covaxin, produced by Bharat Biotech. This ordeal has caused anger among Brazilians and is tarnishing Bolsonaro’s already weakened reputation.
Among the corruption allegations and new impeachment attempts, Bolsonaro is continuing to lose support. The Guardian reported that 59% of voters would not vote for Bolsonaro in next year’s election. Furthermore, the Centrao coalition which holds Bolsonaro in power could part ways with him if his popularity continues to decline. They did so with former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016.
At the time of writing, Jair Bolsonaro has since been hospitalized due to the complications stemming from a stabbing incident that occurred in 2018.
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