(160513) -- BRASILIA, May 13, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff (C) makes a statement in the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 12, 2016. The Brazilian Senate Thursday voted to continue the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff, suspending her from office. (Xinhua/AGENCIA ESTADO) (ah)
Brasilia, May 18 (IANS) Brazil's ruling Workers' Party (PT) headed by President Dilma Rousseff has launched a campaign to "remove" acting President Michel Temer and claimed the country is under a "coup".
PT president Rui Falcao on Tuesday said that party members will continue "fighting the coup" and will undertake actions to raise society's awareness of the need to "get rid of Temer", EFE news reported.
Temer took over the presidency on May 12 from Brazil's first female President Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended from office for 180 days over an impeachment trial.
Falcao said that the "Out With Temer" campaign will also seek to reinstate Rousseff, who would recover her post if she is acquitted by the Senate.
"We will fight for the return of the popularly and democratically elected president, so that a new agenda for thorough political reform and economic measures that can reestablish growth and employment can be proposed to the country," he said.
Falcao, who referred to the acting president as a "coup leader", "illegal" and a "usurper", said that the PT may call a large national demonstration on June 1, when "possibly" Rousseff's defence will be presented before the Senate, tasked with holding the impeachment trial to which she must submit.
He also said that "the PT and all the progressive forces do not and will not recognise the Temer government", which has among its aims ending the social programmes implemented by Rousseff and her political mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Within that framework, he said that the first measures announced by Temer, which point to a reform of the retirement and pension regime or to a revision of social programmes, "prove that this government came to do away with support for the (country's) poorest."
Falcao also said he was convinced that Rousseff will prove her innocence and, above all, that she will demonstrate that "there are no crimes" within the accusations against her.
The charges against Rousseff are based, primarily, on fiscal irregularities that allowed her government to cook the books on government accounts in 2014 and 2015, although the PT said that they were nothing more than "administrative mistakes" that should not be the basis for impeachment.
