Brazil moved closer to a full-blown constitutional crisis on Thursday after a federal judge suspended former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's nomination to the cabinet of his embattled successor, Dilma Rousseff.
Mr Lula was sworn in by the president’s chief of staff in a move seen as a desperate attempt to save Ms Rousseff’s mandate, which hangs in the balance.
The president's Workers Party administration is battered by the fallout from a massive corruption scandal that started in state oil company Petrobras but has seen recent revelations implicate both leaders in an alleged cover-up.
They deny all wrongdoing.
Defiant president
At Mr Lula’s swearing-in ceremony, a defiant Ms Rousseff warned that “the coup-mongers will not bring me to my knees”. Shortly afterwards, however, a judge suspended the appointment.
Judge Itagiba Catta Preta Neto justified this by arguing that Mr Lula could use his new position to interfere with police and judicial activities.
The administration immediately lodged an appeal with the supreme court. It claimed the judge was unfit to take the case as he had made anti-government statements on social media and admitted to taking part in rallies demanding Ms Rousseff’s ousting.
The opposition Brazilian Socialist Party lodged a separate motion with the supreme court, asking it to declare Mr Lula’s nomination unconstitutional.
The suspension followed the release on Wednesday night, by a separate federal judge in charge of the Petrobras probe, of a taped phone conversation between Mr Lula and Ms Rousseff.
The conversation indicated that Mr Lula’s appointment as a minister was designed to shield him from arrest for his alleged role in the scandal.
Ministers in Brazil can only be detained and tried by the supreme court. Last week Mr Lula was formally charged with corruption, and prosecutors made a formal request for his arrest.
Spontaneous protests
Publication of the tapes' contents led to spontaneous protests in large cities across Brazil on Wednesday night. Riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to prevent demonstrators from reaching the congress building in Brasília.
There were further pro- and anti-government demonstrations on Thursday, with scuffles breaking out in several cities. Larger anti-government rallies were expected last night.
The groups behind the huge demonstrations on Sunday said they would hold another round of protests this weekend.
Amid the increasingly febrile political atmosphere, in an unruly session the lower house of congress installed a commission to take up the motion requesting the president’s impeachment.
Mr Lula’s return to government was in part designed to rally support in the congress against the motion. But a week of explosive revelations in the Petrobras affair has left the already paralysed government further weakened.
