Eduardo Cunha stepped down on Thursday as speaker of the lower house of Congress, after spearheading the ongoing impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. He denies obstructing justice and did so again on Thursday. Cunha is still being investigated for corruption and perjury allegations and had been facing suspension from the lower housing. Since his suspension in May, Waldir Maranhao was named interim lower house. Eduardo Cunha will remain on as speaker until February 1st 2017, meanwhile, the house will hold five sessions to elect his replacement.

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Brazil has been subject to a massive fraud scheme in the state-owned oil giant Petrobras, while suffering a contractive economy (it has the biggest recession since 1930). Among the crisis, the opposition led by Eduardo Cunha, linked President Dilma Rouseff to the scandal. Eduardo Cunha himself has been asked to step down by the Brazilian Supreme Court as he’s also said to be implicated in the scandal and has also appeared in the Panama Papers. While President Dilma Rouseff’s impeachment trial is taking place, Michel Temer has taken her post as Interim President.

The new government assigned by Temer has been making various changes, in which government spending is being cut which they claim will help better the economy, whereas critics point out the reforms are being conducted at the cost of social benefits. Recently, a third minister, appointed by the Interim President has been denounced due to links to corruption (following the resignation of the Minister of Transparency). Temer has also been linked to the corruption scandal by the allegations made by a former Petrobras executive, Sergio Machado. A verdict in the impeachment trial will come after Olympics.

For more on the impeachment (accuser’s point of view) click here and here.
For more on the impeachment (defendant’s point of view) click here and here.