"Corruption Is an Old Lady," Says Rousseff After Protests

03/17/2015 - 09h55

President Dilma Rousseff gave on Monday (16) her first public statement after Sunday's (15) protests and said that, in Brazil, "corruption is an old lady."

Rousseff said that government corruption predates the arrival of the PT to power.

"Corruption is an old lady and spares no one. It may be everywhere, including the private sector," she said at a news conference after a ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

The Petrobras corruption scandal, which is being investigated by the Federal Police, tainted the image of the government and the PT.

The whistleblower and former manager of the state-run company, Pedro Barusco, accused the party of having received up to US$ 200 million in kickbacks from the scheme.

The topic of corruption was central to Sunday's protests, which made the government look for answers to dispel the bad mood in some strata.

But, in the domestic agenda, the president renewed just one campaign promise: to launch, possibly this week, an anticorruption package with a focus on reducing impunity.

On Monday, at a news conference after Sunday's protests, the PT member showed some self-criticism, but moments later backtracked.

Despite the quick correction, there was a slight change in the tone she adopted so far. Rousseff decided to make a tough fiscal adjustment without admitting publicly that any error was made.

"Did we make an error in dosage? It is possible that we made some," she told reporters, and then said she did not believe that hypothesis. According to the president, any errors aimed to prevent unemployment and the crash of companies.

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

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	Pedro Ladeira/Folhapress
	Rousseff gave on Monday her first public statement after Sunday's (15) protests and said that "corruption is an old lady"