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BRAZIL’S coalition government disintegrated over the weekend in the wake of bribery allegations against unelected president Michel Temer.
The third-largest party in Brazil’s congress, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), called an emergency meeting yesterday to decide whether to stick with Mr Temer after audio tapes of him of soliciting bribes from meatpacking magnate Joesley Batista emerged last week.
Another major coalition partner, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), pulled out on Saturday evening.
The alleged bribes were hush money for former congress speaker Eduardo Cunha, Mr Temer’s Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) party colleague, who threatened to finger other politicians after he was impeached over the huge so-called Car Wash corruption scandal.
PSDB president Aecio Neves was suspended from the senate last week after the Federal Supreme Court opened an investigation into allegations that he asked Mr Batista for 2 million reais (£470,000) to pay for his Car Wash defence.
Mr Temer continued to deny the allegations on Saturday, claiming the 39-minute recording released by newspaper O Globo was “manipulated and doctored with [bad] intentions.”
But former Workers Party presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff — who was impeached last year in a “legislative coup” led by Mr Cunha — demanded Mr Temer’s immediate exit and elections for a replacement.
Mr da Silva said: “We want Temer to go now, but we don’t want a president to be elected indirectly” — as Mr Temer was, following Ms Rousseff’s ousting.
