Former President Cardoso: Rousseff's Resignation Would Be "Grand Gesture"

08/18/2015 - 09h16

One day after fresh anti-government protests swept cities all over Brazil, former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) gave his harshest assessment yet of the Workers' Party (PT) administration of President Dilma Rousseff.

"The most significant aspect of the protests like yesterday's" [Sunday 16] is the ongoing popular feeling that while "the government is legal, it is illegitimate," Cardoso wrote. In addition, he argued that Rousseff should make a "grand gesture" and consider the possibility of resignation.

"If the President is incapable of a grand gesture (resignation, or at least a frank admission that she has made mistakes, and can indicate the way for national recovery), we will witness the government's increasing disintegration," he continued.

Cardoso said that the government lacks "moral foundation, which has been corroded by the scheming of Lula [da Silva] and the PT [Workers' Party]."

"With the metaphor of the doll dressed as a prisoner [a reference to a giant inflatable Lula which appeared at Sunday's protests in Brasília], even if the president can save herself personally, she has been polluted by the misdeeds of her mentor and is losing the ability to govern."

Cardoso's argument was published on his page on a social network on Monday (17). He said that without a resignation or at least a mea culpa, the situation will be aggravated "by the revelations of Lava Jato [the Federal Police's investigation into corruption at Petrobras]."

"Until some leader with moral strength tells her, just like Ulysses Guimarães to [former president Fernando] Collor: you think that you are the president, but you aren't anymore," Cardoso concluded.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Fabio Braga - 24.mar.2015/Folhapress
	Former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB)