When Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer complained to embattled President Dilma Rousseff that he didn't like being a "decorative" figure, he was serious. Now he could take her job.
Temer and Rousseff always made an awkward couple. As head of the PMDB centrist party, Temer represented the biggest force in leftist Rousseff's shaky coalition.
For years, the PMDB has played that kingmaker role and it worked. But in March, the party voted to quit the government and go into opposition, supporting the rush to impeach Rousseff.
Impeachment is edging closer with a crucial vote on Sunday in the lower house of Congress, which will decide whether to push for an impeachment trial in the Senate. A last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court by Rousseff early Friday failed.
That leaves the dour Temer closing in on the interim presidency, as required under the constitution should Rousseff be suspended or removed from office.
The 75-year-old lawyer has a low profile for someone in such a lynchpin position at the top of Latin America's biggest country and economy.
A constitutional scholar, he is perhaps best known to voters for having a 32-year-old former beauty contestant as a wife.
But now, with his boss possibly sliding toward political oblivion, Temer appears hungry to take himself and his party out of the shadows.
In fact Rousseff accuses him of manipulating the impeachment proceedings to rise to the top, calling him a "conspirator."
- Preparing for big job -
Temer, seen as a master operator in the snakepit of Brasilia's Congressional politics, initially played his cards cautiously.
For months he made his displeasure at Rousseff known, sending a letter in December where he complained of feeling undervalued as "a decorative vice president."
But he was careful to stay on the fence, even as other PMDB members openly attacked Rousseff and pushed ahead the impeachment momentum.
Occasionally, he let the mask slip, publishing a document in October called "A bridge to the future" in which he criticized "excesses" in government policies.
But while lower-level supporters liked to refer to him as "President Temer," he insisted he had no ambitions, except perhaps at the next scheduled elections in 2018.
Finally last month Temer came out into the open, calling on the PMDB to abandon the government and go into opposition.
But nothing was as brazen as the leaking Monday of an audio recording where he practices the speech he'd give if he replaces Rousseff.
"We are living in strange and worrying times, times of a coup and pretending and treachery," Rousseff said. "Yesterday they used the pretense of a leak to give the order for the conspiracy."
- Colorful or dour? -
For such a colorless, backroom wheeler and dealer, Temer has a surprising side.
Not only is he married to a woman less than half his age, but this is his third marriage. He has five children born across four decades.
Nor is he the stuffed suit that he might appear on television. In addition to a highly regarded work on constitutional law, this child of Lebanese immigrants has authored a book of poetry.
He has served three times as speaker of the lower house of Congress and has been president of the PMDB for 15 years.
Temer does not apologize for his dour manner, telling Piaui magazine in 2010 that joking is not his thing. "I don't know how to do this. If I tried, it would be a disaster."
That persona may account for his rock-bottom popularity -- he would get just one percent of the vote in a presidential race against other leading figures, according to a recent Datafolha poll.
Becoming interim president because of a Rousseff impeachment would be one way for the kingmaker to become king.
When Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer complained to embattled President Dilma Rousseff that he didn’t like being a “decorative” figure, he was serious. Now he could take her job.
Temer and Rousseff always made an awkward couple. As head of the PMDB centrist party, Temer represented the biggest force in leftist Rousseff’s shaky coalition.
For years, the PMDB has played that kingmaker role and it worked. But in March, the party voted to quit the government and go into opposition, supporting the rush to impeach Rousseff.
Impeachment is edging closer with a crucial vote on Sunday in the lower house of Congress, which will decide whether to push for an impeachment trial in the Senate. A last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court by Rousseff early Friday failed.
That leaves the dour Temer closing in on the interim presidency, as required under the constitution should Rousseff be suspended or removed from office.
The 75-year-old lawyer has a low profile for someone in such a lynchpin position at the top of Latin America’s biggest country and economy.
A constitutional scholar, he is perhaps best known to voters for having a 32-year-old former beauty contestant as a wife.
But now, with his boss possibly sliding toward political oblivion, Temer appears hungry to take himself and his party out of the shadows.
In fact Rousseff accuses him of manipulating the impeachment proceedings to rise to the top, calling him a “conspirator.”
– Preparing for big job –
Temer, seen as a master operator in the snakepit of Brasilia’s Congressional politics, initially played his cards cautiously.
For months he made his displeasure at Rousseff known, sending a letter in December where he complained of feeling undervalued as “a decorative vice president.”
But he was careful to stay on the fence, even as other PMDB members openly attacked Rousseff and pushed ahead the impeachment momentum.
Occasionally, he let the mask slip, publishing a document in October called “A bridge to the future” in which he criticized “excesses” in government policies.
But while lower-level supporters liked to refer to him as “President Temer,” he insisted he had no ambitions, except perhaps at the next scheduled elections in 2018.
Finally last month Temer came out into the open, calling on the PMDB to abandon the government and go into opposition.
But nothing was as brazen as the leaking Monday of an audio recording where he practices the speech he’d give if he replaces Rousseff.
“We are living in strange and worrying times, times of a coup and pretending and treachery,” Rousseff said. “Yesterday they used the pretense of a leak to give the order for the conspiracy.”
– Colorful or dour? –
For such a colorless, backroom wheeler and dealer, Temer has a surprising side.
Not only is he married to a woman less than half his age, but this is his third marriage. He has five children born across four decades.
Nor is he the stuffed suit that he might appear on television. In addition to a highly regarded work on constitutional law, this child of Lebanese immigrants has authored a book of poetry.
He has served three times as speaker of the lower house of Congress and has been president of the PMDB for 15 years.
Temer does not apologize for his dour manner, telling Piaui magazine in 2010 that joking is not his thing. “I don’t know how to do this. If I tried, it would be a disaster.”
That persona may account for his rock-bottom popularity — he would get just one percent of the vote in a presidential race against other leading figures, according to a recent Datafolha poll.
Becoming interim president because of a Rousseff impeachment would be one way for the kingmaker to become king.
