[rbanffy]

The crime has to be committed during the present term. The right to impeach the president for crimes committed during the presidency ceases when the term ends (although this law predates the reelection amendment, it is understood a reelected president starts a new term). That's the end of it.

I agree this law has its issues, but this is what's written.

Again, I am not sure the protesters are that representative. It's much harder to generate a positive response from people who are between neutral and satisfied than it is to obtain the same response from people who are dissatisfied. While approval rates are as low as they ever were for Dilma, strong disapproval like this is not unprecedented. Add to that that the reasons for protesting were all over the spectrum: from stronger economic action in the trickle-down doctrine all the way to "we want our dictatorship back". More than 80% of the protesters declared themselves voters for the candidate who lost the election and most of the protesters were white upper urban middle-class professionals.

I live in São Paulo, and, as difficult as it may be to grasp that, I must understand what I see around me is not typical Brazil. I live in a bubble.

[andrenth]

You are assuming that nothing that has happened or is related to the president's second term has or will be uncovered by the investigation, which I believe is a very strong assumption. For example, there's the use of illegal money disguised as campaign donations for the reelection.

The current popularity numbers are another indicator that the protests are representative, much like the protests in favor of direct elections in the 80s. We're those not representative either?

By the way, her approval rates are as low as they have ever been for any president since Collor, who was impeached, and the numbers are low in all segments of society. And that's by Datafolha's numbers, an institute known to publish numbers biased towards the government.

I can only speak for the protests in Rio, of which I took part. I've seen people from all social and cultural spheres. I saw bus and truck drivers honking in support, and people waving Brazilian flags from their windows. I also saw the pan and pot protests that happened while her ministers were on TV giving the same old disconnected from reality speech.

I think it's this government that is living in a bubble, and hopefully it's about to burst.