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 With Rousseff to be suspended during the Senate trial for
allegedly breaking budget rules, the centrist Temer will take the
helm of a country that again finds itself mired in political and
economic volatility after a recent decade of prosperity.
The 55-22 vote ends more than 13 years of rule by the left-wing
Workers Party, which rose from Brazil's labor movement and helped
pull millions of people out of poverty before seeing many of its
leaders tainted by corruption investigations.
Fireworks rang out in cities across Brazil after the vote at the end
of a 20-hour session in the Senate. Police had briefly clashed with
pro-Rousseff demonstrators in Brasilia on Wednesday, exchanging
volleys of tear gas and rocks.
Rousseff, a 68-year-old economist and former Marxist guerrilla who
was Brazil’s first female president, is unlikely to be acquitted in
a trial that could last as long as six months.
A two-thirds majority is needed in the Senate to convict her but the
scale of her defeat on Thursday showed that the opposition already
has the support it needs.
 "Impeachment is a tragedy for the country ... It is a bitter though
necessary medicine," opposition Senator Jose Serra, tipped to become
foreign minister under Temer, said during the debate. "But having
the Rousseff government continue would be a bigger tragedy. Brazil's
situation would be unbearable."
The impeachment process began in the lower house of Congress in
December. Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and called her
impeachment a "coup".
Temer, a 75-year-old centrist and constitutional scholar who spent
decades in Brazil's Congress, now faces the challenge of restoring
economic growth and calm at a time when Brazilians, increasingly
polarized, are questioning whether their institutions can deliver on
his promise of stability.
In addition to a towering budget deficit, equal to more than 10
percent of its annual economic output, Brazil is suffering from
rising unemployment, plummeting investment and a projected economic
contraction of more than 3 percent this year.
"Only major reforms can keep Brazil from moving from crisis to
crisis," says Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca, an economist and author
in São Paulo who has written extensively about the country's
socioeconomic problems.
But those changes, including an overhaul of pension, tax and labor
laws and a political reform to streamline fragmented parties in a
mercenary Congress, could remain elusive at a time of turmoil.
While opposition supporters celebrated in the central Paulista
Avenue of Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, many Brazilians are
concerned that the end of Workers Party rule could bring back bad
times for the poor, who have made great strides in the last decade.
"Has Dilma made mistakes? Of course. But the Workers Party has done
so much for us, for the people," said Benedito Polongo, a
63-year-old janitor outside a shiny Brasilia business center, who
said he had no job or bank account before the party came to power.
"I fear that those who come after her will erase all that has been
done for the poor."
 WILD CARDS
Rousseff's government made a last-ditch effort to annul her
impeachment but it was rejected by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Senate Speaker Renan Calheiros said Rousseff will be notified of the
upper house's decision on Thursday morning and will have to leave
Brasilia's Planalto presidential palace, though she can continue to
live in her official residence, have a staff and use an Air Force
plane as suspended head of state.
Rousseff will make a statement at 10 a.m. local (1300 GMT), aides
said, and will then depart Planalto to address a rally of supporters
accompanied by her mentor, Workers Party founder and former
president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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The Official Gazette on Thursday showed that Rousseff dismissed her
cabinet, including the sports minister, who is in final preparations
for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August. The central bank
governor, who has ministerial rank, was not included in the decree.
The move was designed to frustrate a smooth transition for Temer,
whom Rousseff deems a traitor because of his efforts, as leader of
the party that was her main ally in Congress, to unravel that
coalition and force party colleagues to resign from government
posts.
Temer plans to swear in new ministers on Thursday afternoon and is
promising pro-market policies to bring Brazil's budget deficit under
control, rein in inflation and get the economy growing again.
Brazilian markets have for weeks rallied as investors welcomed the
likely dismissal of a president they believe crippled the economy,
were largely unchanged on Wednesday.
Wild cards remain for Temer himself, including still-pending
investigations by an electoral court into financing for his and
Rousseff’s 2014 re-election campaign.
Then there is the far-reaching kickback probe around state-run oil
company Petroleo Brasileiro SA <PETR4.SA>, which has ensnared dozens
of corporate and political chieftains and fueled the discontent that
led to Rousseff's impeachment.
Rousseff, energy minister and chief of staff to her predecessor
before taking office in 2011, was chairwoman of Petrobras at the
time when much of the graft occurred.
She has not been accused of corruption, but the scandal at Petrobras
encouraged opposition lawmakers to oust her for disguising the size
of the government's budget deficit in the lead-up to her
re-election.
Temer has not been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal either, but
some of his allies and party colleagues have. Prosecutors say they
are far from finished with the probe.
Though many lawmakers have expressed their desire to join forces and
get on with a recovery upon Rousseff's exit, dozens of parties are
jockeying for power in the Temer government and angling to position
themselves for new elections in 2018.
Temer has indicated he will not run for president in 2018. A recent
survey from polling group Datafolha showed just 1 percent of those
surveyed would vote for him, and other polls show around 60 percent
of Brazilians want him impeached too.
"Temer may have a honeymoon, but let's not forget this was a shotgun
wedding," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the State
University of Rio de Janeiro. "Reforms aren't easy at the best of
times and these are for sure not the easiest."
(Additional reporting by Paulo Prada, Brad Brooks, Alonso Soto,
Lisandra Paraguassy, Leonard Goy and Silvio Cascione; Writing by
Paulo Prada and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Frances Kerry and Kieran
Murray)
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