President Dilma Rousseff on Friday suffered two setbacks to her fight against impeachment, as a minister from her main coalition ally resigned and the Supreme Court quashed appeals from supporters seeking to stop the impeachment process.
Though not momentous enough to reverse the likelihood that Rousseff can stop impeachment proceedings launched against her in Congress on Wednesday, the setbacks show that the Supreme Court and even coalition partners are willing to let the process play out and strategizing for what may follow.
Aviation Minister Eliseu Padilha, an ally of Vice President Michel Temer and part of the fractious party that is Rousseff’s main coalition partner, on Friday submitted his resignation, according to two people familiar with the decision from within the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s Supreme Court turned back appeals from Rousseff’s allies to block the impeachment proceedings.
The process, launched against Rousseff by opposition politicians for accounting tricks that a congressional auditor said broke public finance laws, is expected to mean at least six months of political wrangling at a time when the government is struggling with legislative gridlock, the deepest recession in three decades and a historic corruption scandal.
An aviation ministry spokesman declined comment and Rousseff’s office had no immediate reaction to Padilha’s resignation, but politicians and analysts saw a deliberate desire by the center-right PMDB, a restive ally even at the best of times, to put further distance between itself and the leftist president.
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Brazil Energy Insight 
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