News / Brazil

Brazil’s Rousseff ‘ready to negotiate with critics’

Tuesday, 17 March 2015 9:37 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 March 2015 9:37 AM ]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has expressed readiness to negotiate with her critics following massive protests across the country, saying she will release an anti-corruption plan in the coming days.

“The government hears the protests in the streets and will continue to do so. I am open for dialogue,” Rousseff said in a televised address on Monday.

She also promised that there will be no “consequences" for anyone "expressing their opinion against whomever, including the presidency.”

The 67-year-old leader, however, said that the will of the nation is expressed in elections and must be respected.

The president called on the country to unite and told parties across the political spectrum to pay attention to the growing popular discontent.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people attended anti-government rallies across Brazil to protest against the administration and urge Rousseff to step down.

Rousseff is facing criticism over Brazil’s stagnating economy, rising energy costs, and a major corruption scandal involving state-run oil giant Petrobras.

Though nobody has yet been convicted, dozens of political figures and former Petrobras executives are under investigation over a scheme facilitating corruption and money laundering that saw an estimated USD 3.8 billion creamed off inflated contracts over a decade.

Rousseff, who served as the head of Petrobras before taking office as president in 2010, is under criticism for failing to take action against corruption at the oil company during her tenure and later as Brazil’s top leader.

She has denied any knowledge of the multi-billion-dollar kickback scheme, and backed the ongoing Petrobras probe.

Rousseff, who began her second term in January, announced that a set of measures to fight corruption and abuse of the justice system would be submitted to Brazil’s congress for discussion in the next few days.

Her approval rating fell to a four-year low of 23 percent in February, according to a recent poll by the Datafolha Institute.

This comes as Brazilian prosecutors on Monday charged João Vaccari Neto, the treasurer of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT), with corruption in connection to the Petrobras case. Vaccari is accused of disguising over USD 1.2 million in bribes as campaign donations to the PT between 2008 and 2010, Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol said.

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