First female president of Brazil could be forced from office after vote
Senate will vote whether to put her on trial for illegal financing
A warrior to the end: Rousseff as the sinner and saint of Brazil
3.14am BST
Former president Fernando Collor de Mello, himself impeached by the senate in 1992, speaks of a “country in ruins” at the “apex of a crisis”.
Collor na tribuna. Momento histórico da política brasileira pic.twitter.com/LkfPVYFMte
2.56am BST
At the moment, though, we are watching Senator Armando Monteiro make his speech. He was a minister in Rousseff’s government and opposes impeachment, which he says would “cause a serious institutional rupture” in Brazil.
O senador @ArmandoPTB fala agora sobre o golpe:"Estaremos provocando a uma grave ruptura institucional do País"
2.52am BST
Fernando Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected president of post-military Brazil, is due to speak next.
He was himself impeached in 1992 – though he resigned before being disqualified by a vote in the senate – and as a senator is one of those facing investigation as part of the Petrobras scandal for allegedly taking kickbacks.
Collor, ex-president who was impeached himself but bounced back as a senator, coming up next. #impeachment https://t.co/MC5DEV2OQY
2.37am BST
Sousa says there is a “sexist, misogynist aspect” to the action against Rousseff:
E há o componente sexista, misógino, dessa conspiração. Disseram: “mulher não pode”, principalmente a Dilma.
Perhaps unsurprising, Regina Sousa (PT) only black woman in Brazil senate, 1st speaker in hrs (days?) to raise role of gender in impeachment
2.30am BST
Next up is Senator Regina Sousa, of Rousseff’s own Workers’ party, who unsurprisingly says she will oppose what she describes as a “coup”:
A Senadora Regina Sousa será a próxima a discursar. Ela historiará e denunciará o golpe. Tweetaremos drops do discurso aqui.
A oposição decidiu que Dilma não governaria. Como não há um crime, culparam a crise. Ora, já vivemos crises piores sem depor o governante!
2.23am BST
Because those 15-minute speeches just aren’t long enough, some senators carry on even after the microphone is cut off:
Senador Hélio José (PMDB-DF) continua discursando depois de ter microfone cortado https://t.co/mFIW0zZ6ro pic.twitter.com/5fIadr82HE
2.17am BST
And with the 35th senator to speak – Cássio Cunha Lima – we’ve now reached the halfway point of the 70 whose names were on the list to make a speech today. Only 11 hours in.
2.12am BST
Senator Hélio José is speaking now. He is the 34th senator to make a speech. José is a member of Temer’s PMDB and says the debate in the senate today has been “high level” and “brilliant”.
1.59am BST
Associated Press sends this dispatch on unrest outside the senate tonight:
Protesters supporting Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff have clashed with police on the lawn outside the Senate as senators debated whether to impeach the leader.
It wasn’t clear what sparked the short but intense confrontations. Police used pepper spray to drive back protesters. Demonstrators largely from feminist groups threw firecrackers at police lines.
Pepper spray earlier in front of Congress #impeachment pic.twitter.com/jwmSvxZJx4
On the Senate floor, Communist party senator Vanessa Grazziontin expressed worry about what she called spiralling levels of “unnecessary violence” directed at pro-Rousseff demonstrators.
A wall erected down the center of the lawn separated several thousand Rousseff supporters from a similar-sized group of pro-impeachment protesters. On the pro-impeachment side, a Carnival-esque spirit reigned, with demonstrators sipping beers while decked out in the yellow and green jersey of Brazil’s beloved national soccer team.
1.54am BST
Get your snacks in: senate leader Renan Calheiros is saying the proceedings could continue until 5am local time (4am ET/9am BST/6pm AEST).
Do @gcamarotti: Renan prevê sessão que vota o impeachment até 5h da manhã de quinta https://t.co/rxb7FwVBRC pic.twitter.com/Gvd1VcfLLc
1.45am BST
Senator Vanessa Grazziotin is speaking now. She has previously called for the impeachment process to be suspended.
Tonight she tells senators that voting for Rousseff’s removal would be a fraud against the laws of democracy:
Vanessa Grazziotin: Caso este Plenário aprove o processo, estaremos diante de uma das maiores fraudes ao Estado Democrático de Direito
Quanta hipocrisia, quanta mentira! O que eles querem é também acabar com a Lava Jato #equipevanessa
1.38am BST
Senate speeches latest: we now have 25 senators who have declared themselves in favour of impeachment, and five against.
A reminder: a simple majority is enough to see Rousseff suspended. On a full complement of 81 senators, with all members present, that’s 41 votes needed to impeach.
1.35am BST
Rousseff and Jaques Wagner, former defence minister, watch the crowds from inside the Planalto palace:
O ministro Jaques Wagner e a presidente Dilma foram flagrados na janela do Planalto https://t.co/PlpljN03UE pic.twitter.com/nmo42WSudN
1.28am BST
Brazilian newspaper O Globo reports that current vice-president (and presumptive president in the event of Rousseff’s impeachment) Michel Temer is pressing ahead with the assembling of his new government, with the appointment of a new attorney general, Fábio Medina Osório.
The current attorney general, José Eduardo Cardozo, is expected to leave with Rousseff.
1.17am BST
China’s censors aren’t keen to share the news of the impeachment vote:
Bizarrely, Chinese TV censors spiked @BBCWorld story on Brazil impeachment vote this morning. Clearly not Temer fans pic.twitter.com/e7HmLrhPXH
1.10am BST
Hello, this is Claire Phipps picking up the live blog reins to take you through to the Senate vote in – I hope – a few hours’ time.
In the first 10 (10!) hours of this session, 30 senators had their say, fewer than half of those scheduled to speak. Senate leader Renan Calheiros has now pledged not to take a recess and push the proceeding through to a vote. But it looks as if it will be the early hours of Thursday morning, Brazil time, before the result is official.
12.52am BST
Ten hours into Brazil’s Senate debate about ousting President Dilma Rousseff from office, the pro-impeachment forces look certain to win tonight’s vote. Rousseff stands accused of illegally using government funds to mask the true state of the Brazilian economy.
My colleague Claire Phipps in Sydney is going to take over our live coverage for the second half of this marathon debate and vote. Here’s where things stand at the moemnt
12.42am BST
The Senate debate has little of the chaos of House’ vote last month, during which lawmakers pledged their decisions to family members, freemasons and the chief torturer of Brazil’s military dictatorship – under which Dilma Rousseff was herself tortured.
Instead the senators seem intent on turning the impeachment debate into something between a classroom and one very, very long advertisement for re-election. After each of the senators gets a turn (we’re about a third of the way through) there are speeches to sum up the pro- and anti-impeachment arguments. Then the Senate finally votes.
Senate hearing just turned into a high school class. Senate leader said, "If people don't turn off their cellphones, I'm calling a time-out.
Scene in Brazil Senate is not circus of the lower house vote on impeachment, but get sense many senators speaking w next campaign ad in mind
Another hour, a Dilma defender may lose his or mind and say Yes, vote for impeachment! just to shut them up.
12.26am BST
Three Brazils: red in support of the president against impeachment, yellow and green in support of her ouster, and a Congress whose senators, many of whom are accused of corruption, are debating criminal charges against the president.
Divided Brazil. Tear gas clashes on red side of wall. Drunken dance party on yellow side. pic.twitter.com/tsQkm6jRy6
Is there a political class that loves to hear itself talking more than this lot in Brasília?
So President Dilma is planning on talking to press at 10am tomorrow. But we may not have the final vote by then… 21 x 4
12.17am BST
Jon Watts is still out with the crowd on the streets, where he’s met some of the people who were exposed to the teargas fired by police.
Anti impeachment protester in Brasilia carried off for treatment. Friends say she couldn't breathe due to tear gas. pic.twitter.com/2s7jJGzBBV
12.03am BST
Neves expounds at length about how “the Workers’ Party is going back to ancient ways”, raising many of the arguments he made while campaigning against Rousseff in 2014. His vote should not be in doubt.
The president’s office has meanwhile said that Rousseff will speak to the press at 10am local time Thursday morning, not immediately after the vote as originally planned.
Aécio Neves is giving the victory speech he couldn't in the 2014 election.
One of the senators supposed to vote today is the president Brazil impeached in the 90s. He hasn't shown up yet.
11.52pm BST
The AP has been talking to some of the senators who’ve declared their vote – none are mincing words about their feelings.
“To improve the life of the nation we need to remove them[(Rousseff’s Workers’ Party] at this time,” Senator Magno Malta told a scrum of journalists outside the Senate floor. “We will start to breathe again and the doctor will say the nation has given signs of life and will be stable soon.”
“The great day has come” to “extract the nation from the claws of the Workers’ Party,” said Senator Ataides Oliveira, the fifth of 63 Senators slated to speak during the debate
Aecio: We’re here to vote against a person, not against a political party.
11.40pm BST
Back inside the Senate, the anti-Rousseff coalition inches toward the halfway mark of declared votes needed for impeachment.
Eduardo Amorim says Brazil is a “country without credibility”, votes for impeachment. 19 x 4
11.27pm BST
Brazilian police have set up barricades and a line of officers outside the Senate in Brasilia, where Jon Watts saw brief clashes between officers and protesters. Inside Congress the senators have again come to order for debates. Jon reports from the streets:
Police just fired a few volleys of teargas at anti impeachment protesters outside the Senate. The protesters threw rocks and fireworks. Hard to say which side started. But seems to have calmed for the moment.
Protestors taunting police pic.twitter.com/dnd4cc2m2H
11.23pm BST
My colleague Jon Watts is with the crowds outside Congress in Brasilia, where police have fired teargas canisters after supporters of the president threw a few fireworks, he reports.
Police fire tear gas after anti impeachment protesters throw fireworks during rally outside Senate in Brasilia.
Police firing tear gas at pro Dilma protestors outside senate in Brasilia pic.twitter.com/lGspNaB3fQ
pic.twitter.com/vg16dY22Af
11.18pm BST
Some technical difficulties setting up a giant inflatable Dilma outside FIESP, Paulista pic.twitter.com/zXXeTy46P3
10.45pm BST
The parliamentary watchdog newspaper Congresso em Foco has published a list of Senators who are under investigation or have had their cases archived by the Supreme Court. Alleged corruption does not discriminate by beliefs: according to the watchdog there are 24 active investigations for 81 senators, 14 of which involve the “Car Wash” bribery scandal of oil giant Petrobras.
Senators under investigation as of 25 April 2016:
10.20pm BST
Senate leader Renan Calheiros calls for a break in the floor speeches. The pro-impeachment forces have nearly half the votes – declared, at least – they would need to oust Dilma Rousseff from the presidency in a full Senate vote.
With all the senators present they would need 41 votes to impeach Rousseff and put her on trial for using government finances to mask woes in the economy.
We're at 17 Senators spoken in favour of impeachment of #Dilma, 4 against, if you're counting
pic.twitter.com/GqQsK0WCft
10.12pm BST
As twilight turns to night in Brasilia, protesters line up in yellow and green to show a “Wall of Shame” with their leaders’ faces on it to Ana Terra Athayde’s camera.
pic.twitter.com/hJLzSMoxsn
9.56pm BST
Rousseff has found another ally on the floor. Workers’ Party senator Jorge Viana Acre tells the chamber: “This impeachment throws the votes of millions of Brazilians in the trash!”
“We’re living in institutional anarchy in our country,” he adds – Rousseff’s Workers’ Party seems grateful to have someone’s defense to tweet out.
"Nós estamos vivendo a anarquia institucional neste país" - JorgeVianaAcre (PT-AC): https://t.co/osez6gDyRD
9.37pm BST
Senator Agripino Maia is making a long and convoluted speech about state banks and his experiences with them, related to the impeachment vote in only a very roundabout way.
He is not helping anybody who wants to actually impeach or defend the president.
Fun #Brazil Senate stats:
80% White Men
58% Under Criminal Investigation
60% Come from Political dynasties
13% Unelected (alternates)
Brazilian politicians use their 15 minutes of fame to take short cuts to irrelevance.
9.23pm BST
Ângela Portela, of the president’s Workers’ Party, says she’ll vote against impeaching Dilma Rousseff. She’s only the second to declare herself with the president in the Senate today, making the declared tally, so far, 15 for impeachment and two against.
The Senate needs a simple majority of the senators present, meaning 41 votes if all 81 senators are present. Senate leader Renan Calheiros has said he will not vote to stay neutral. If not all the senators are present the tally necessary for impeachment is lower: there are 73 senators in the chamber at the moment, for instance, then only 38 senators need vote for impeachment.
Brazil impeachment vote in senate looking like 15 x 2 so far. Reports the actual vote will take place at 2am.
9.06pm BST
Senate leader Renan Calheiros has said he will not vote whether to impeach Dilma Rousseff, saying that he wants to stay neutral as the president of the chamber.
But he was already using the past tense when he spoke of the sitting president of the country, and started speaking in the future tense of vice-president Michel Temer, who is of the senator’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).
8.46pm BST
Two more say they’ll vote for impeachment. Senator Sergio Petecão admits: “I won’t say we should expect it to solve all the problems.”
Petecão is of the Social Democratic Party, which has taken many lawmakers who’ve left Brazil’s rightwing Democrats, and he was formerly of a center-nationalist party.
Senator Cristovão Buarque is up. He's voting yes. "It's the left that aged, not me," he says. pic.twitter.com/i5rWARpe2j
During impeachment proceedings, Brazil Senate President plays the role of annoyed schoolteacher: "I recommend that you all pay attention..."
8.31pm BST
If you’re catching up … we’re now at 13 senators who’ve declared for impeachment, one in defense of Dilma Rousseff. The Senate needs a simple majority of present senators to impeach the president, which would be 41 with all 81 senators present.
Senate speeches, Cliff Notes version:
shout-outs
this difficult moment
unemployment
Dilma, Lula
corruption
What country is this?
I vote yes
8.15pm BST
The senators of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) have agreed to give up their speaking time, my colleague Jon Watts reports from the Senate floor.
There are six of them so that saves 90 minutes – but barring more sacrifices from dozens of other senators, we’re still on schedule to finish hours from now.
Senador Telmário Mota preciso em suas palavras: Querem mudar no tapetão o resultado das urnas.
Senate vote is 11 x 1 for impeachment so far. Worse than Brazil in the World Cup, worse than Ed Cunha in Supreme Court.
7.57pm BST
Rousseff has found at least one friend in the Senate and a few outside it. Senator Telmário Mota took the podium to ask: “What country is this?”
“We want a country that respects the law and the constitution and democracy,” he said. “This impeachment was born of revenge, hatred and revenge.”
Senador Telmário Mota (PDT/RR) pergunta: "Que país é esse?" https://t.co/rwxW256blV pic.twitter.com/7QiTc4jGeD
"Democracy, yes! No coup!" pic.twitter.com/7faxe5AsNe
7.36pm BST
Inside Congress, a football (soccer) star turned senator, Romário de Souza Faria, has taken the podium.
“It’s undeniable that the country is going through a very serious crisis,” he says. “The crisis has a political element, but it’s not limited to this.”
Por isso, votarei pela admissão do processo de impeachment.
pic.twitter.com/3hYDABE7ch
7.15pm BST
Senator Magno Malta is at the podium, the ninth senator of 68 who were slated to speak – Brazilian press are reporting that the Senate may skip some speeches to get to the actual vote.
Malta is not wasting his opportunity. He too is in favor of impeachment. He’s waving an accusatory finger at the Senate and shouting at his colleagues about the dire state of Brazil, comparing corruption to diseases: “like diabetics, we have to amputate the limb”.
Brazil senator currently speaking says Rousseff is "gangrene" & needs to be amputated.
7.06pm BST
Many Brazilians have blamed Rousseff for dragging the economy into the worst recession in decades, and her impeachment hinges on related charges: using government funds to hide signs of trouble.
Senators Lúcia Vânia and Zexe Perella have also brought up the economy: they’re the sixth and seventh senators to speak in favor of impeachment today.
Her disastrous handling of the government budget (and ensuing fudging of the numbers, for which she is facing impeachment), her refusal to engage in a new wave of economic reform, and her mismanagement of the corruption scandalat state-run oil company Petrobras have destroyed much of the goodwill and stability that previous governments in Brazil had painstakingly built over the past 20 years.
Based on his probable picks for finance minister and other key cabinet positions, Temer will be much less likely than Rousseff to meddle in areas of the economy such as interest rates, or the rate of return for investors on infrastructure projects, that are best left to independent regulators or the private sector.
Temer may even take on longstanding obstacles to growth such as Brazil’s tax code (which the World Bank has called the world’s most complex) and the gaping hole in its pension system.
6.48pm BST
Six senators have taken turns so far at the Senate podium (of a planned 68 ) to argue for and against impeachment. Most have spoken about the economic crisis – unemployment and inflation are hovering near 10% – and Rousseff’s handling of it.
Two senators asked to delay the proceedings in Rousseff’s favor before the formal turns at debate began, but they were overruled, and the supreme court later rejected Rousseff’s appeal to halt the vote.
Now a senator is showing a bar chart while he gives his remarks. #impeachment pic.twitter.com/EMwaGZKBuJ
6.32pm BST
The Senate is back at long last from its extended lunch break, with leader Renan Calheiro chatting idly before starting off the session to impeach the president.
“We can’t really rush history,” he says, per Folha’s Leandro Colon.
Renan batendo papo com senadores antes de recomeçar sessão pic.twitter.com/Y2yV59uN5a
6.14pm BST
Humberto Costa, the leader of the Workers Party in the Senate, has all but admitted defeat for Dilma Rousseff, whose second term seems on the verge of an abrupt early end to the party’s hold of the presidency.
“There are no other paths for us but opposition,” he just said in a televised interview.
Esse processo de impeachment é claro: de um lado, nós temos a democracia. Do outro, o golpe. pic.twitter.com/0NZgMsIQUa
6.05pm BST
Rousseff will address Brazil after the Senate votes on her impeachment, perhaps reading the signs so far as a near certainty that Congress will put her on trial.
Dilma to address the nation after vote https://t.co/UEw4SC0Tz7
Confirmada a saída da #Dilma, o balanço será este: em 52 anos, apenas 4 presidentes eleitos diretamente. Desses, metade sofreu #impeachment
5.58pm BST
The senators take their time.
Senate taking an extended lunch break here. No rush. Nothing big on the agenda. Only impeaching the president...
People wait in the shade for Senate vote in 84°F Brasília. pic.twitter.com/vG7c2UpMIl
5.20pm BST
With few senators standing up for Rousseff so far – though we are only five speakers into a supposed 68 planned – impeachment and suspension are looking more and more likely. At the Senate in Brasilia my colleague Jon Watts runs through the possibilities of what would happen next.
If the suspension of Rousseff goes ahead, the presidential line of succession will have been decimated in the past week, with possibly more to come.
4.59pm BST
Brazil’s supreme court has rejected her last minute appeal to stop the impeachment vote. The president’s senatorial allies had argued this morning that the Senate should at least wait until the supreme court had ruled on the appeal, which was likely Rousseff’s last opportunity to prevent an ouster.
Brazilian Supreme Court rejects government request to annul impeachment. Escape routes closing for Dilma.
Teori Zavascki impede anulação do processo de impeachment de Dilma. Entenda e leia a íntegra https://t.co/FGblDo4Czl pic.twitter.com/KWFtHDXpXD
4.35pm BST
Senator Ataides Oliveira, the last speaker before the Senate ended its first session, harkened back to the antics of the House of Deputies when it was his turn at the podium. He called for impeachment with arms waving, fists clenched and exhortations shouted to oust Rousseff from office.
This senator just busted into an actual operatic ~vibrato~ while denouncing Dilma Rousseff pic.twitter.com/jc9ZHTragb
4.01pm BST
Compared to the rambunctious, overwhelming vote to impeach Dilma Rousseff in the House last month, the mood is considerably more sombre in the Senate, my colleague Jon Watts reports from the floor of the chamber.
“All the people here are broken hearted. We don’t want this, but it is unavaoidable. Brazil has come to a stop since last year,” claimed Senator Marcelo Crivella, who, outside of standing for the Brazilian Republican Party is also a gospel singer and bishop of the evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
3.50pm BST
Watchdog group Aos Fatos notes that 14 lawmakers are under investigation for corruption and graft in the Petrobras scandal, in which the state-run oil giant, businesses and lawmakers are accused of passing around $2bn worth of bribes for contracts.
Journalist Rachel Glickhouse translates the linked tweet.
Brazil's Senate: 14 legislators under investigation as part of Petrobras scandal; half plan to vote for impeachment. https://t.co/EOtnnXn0Je
3.45pm BST
Senator Ana Amélia Lemos has invoked Pope Francis in her time on the floor, quoting him: “I hope that Brazil will follow the path of harmony and peace.” Then she pulls out a copy of the Brazilian constitution as a prop.
Lemos supports impeachment, and has fought back adamantly against critics and Rousseff supporters who say impeachment is a “coup”.
.@anaamelialemos cita declaração de hj do papa Francisco: "Desejo que o Brasil siga pelo caminho da harmonia e da paz".
3.28pm BST
While Brazilian newspapers have found that around 50 senators plan to vote for a trial, it’s not clear that Dilma Rousseff’s enemies have enough votes to bar her from office, the AP reports.
A survey by Folha of Sao Paulo suggests there are only 41 senators willing to remove her permanently, 13 fewer than needed. The House voted 367-137 last month in favor of impeachment.
“Dilma will be impeached for a variety of reasons,” said Marcos Troyjo, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “And the possibility of her coming back is zero.”
“The people involved abused and took advantage of the opportunity to steal money in an absurd way,” said Tiago Gomes da Silva, a 33-year-old standing in line at an unemployment office in Rio de Janeiro. “This had to come to an end. And the actual government is directly linked to this.”
“The problem in Brazil was the inflation,” Carlos Antonio Porto Goncalves, economics professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said of Rousseff’s first years as president. “And the government, to fight inflation, raised interest rates to extremely high levels so demand decreased, and the recession came.”
“She is a woman with a knife in her boot,” said Alexandre Barros, a political consultant in Brasilia, using a popular phrase in Portuguese to describe tough women. “But she is not a politician.”
3.07pm BST
A protester has shown up at Congress wearing a word that needs no translation. He points out that vice-president Michel Temer has also been found to have broken the law.
Impeach the lot of them, he says. Temer could very well have an abbreviated term – as could other lawmakers accused of corruption, taking bribes and other crimes.
First protesters arrive in front of Congress. This man thinks that Temer (VP) should also face an impeachment trial. pic.twitter.com/4jSvQTrfCv
"The poorest will suffer the most" in case there's a change in government, says this pro-Dilma protester pic.twitter.com/QQgInJcefU
2.55pm BST
Senate president Renan Calheiro has denied requests by Gleisi Hoffmann and Vanessa Grazziotin to delay the impeachment until the supreme court decides the president’s appeal over it.
Renan nega pedidos de Gleisi e Vanessa para adiar votação do impeachment no Senado. Ao vivo https://t.co/j1rchrriRf pic.twitter.com/QCVAfAvwGw
2.51pm BST
On what could be the last morning of her presidency, Dilma Rousseff went for a stroll … with what appear to be rheas.
Em dia de votação, Dilma prefere fazer caminhada à tradicional pedalada https://t.co/QNOZz1yAHp pic.twitter.com/kLKyEChw8A
2.47pm BST
Jota notes that there are 56 senators currently holding the quorum, though there are 81 senators in all. To impeach Rousseff her enemies need a simple majority of the senators present, not necessarily 41 needed with a full session. Voting’s expected to begin this evening.
Corrigindo com ajuda dos seguidores: admissibilidade será aprovada com MAIORIA SIMPLES -mais da metade dos presentes, não 41 necessariamente
2.31pm BST
Vice-president Michel Temer, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, is waiting in the wings today to take over from Dilma Rousseff should she be impeached.
Rousseff has declared her running-mate and former ally a “usurper”, but his party is feeling good. They’re calling today the “day of hope”.
É HOJE o dia da Esperança! Melhoria na qualidade de vida para todos os brasileiros. #UnidosComBrasil #SomosTemer pic.twitter.com/9pOer06L6z
“O impeachment é impensável, geraria uma crise institucional. Não tem base jurídica e nem política"
2.22pm BST
Senator Gleisi Hoffmann has asked the Senate president to postpone the vote on impeachment until the supreme court has decided on Rousseff’s appeal against the legality of the procedure.
Hoffmann was Rousseff’s chief of staff during her first term, from 2011-2014.
Gleisi pede a Renan que adie a votação do impeachment no Senado até que o STF julgue recurso do governo contra o processo
2.13pm BST
The Senate session is finally underway, with the chamber’s president Renan Calheiro leading off with a long speech. There’s a steady din of senators chattering behind him. Portuguese speakers can follow along on Senate TV live here.
My colleague Jon Watts is in the room, with God himself, according to Calheiro.
Senate leader starts impeachment debate against Dilma, "with the protection of god I initiate our work." pic.twitter.com/ScRJzGIGcs
2.08pm BST
The men and women of Brazil’s congress are a motley lot: several of their leaders are themselves accused of corruption, including Senate president Renan Calheiro.
The Economist has compiled many of the strange reasons that federal deputies have given for their votes for and against impeachment so far, with translations.
1.51pm BST
Senate president Renana Calheiro is talking to the press in Brasilia, and said that the first session has already been delayed 45 minutes. Live looks at the Senate show around half of the senators haven’t arrived on time for one of the most consequential votes in modern Brazilian history.
Sessão do impeachment já tem atraso de 45 minutos. Renan diz agora a jornalistas que "torceu" para que processo não chegasse ao Senado
Still no quorum to start session of #Brazil Senate - due to vote on #impeachment motion against president pic.twitter.com/jAjTTFBgkU
1.15pm BST
My colleagues Jon Watts and Ana Athayde are in Brasilia helping cover the vote, and have sent along a quick guide of what we can expect from the Senate today.
12.46pm BST
Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, who faces being forced out of office by an unruly Congress that has accused her of illegally manipulating government accounts.
Rousseff’s nemesis in the affair is Eduardo Cunha, the machiavellian speaker of the House who is himself accused of corruption and has been suspended from his post. Similarly tangled up in the scandal are the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his chief of staff (allies of Rousseff), vice-president Michel Temer, who was last week fined for violating campaign law, and two more enemies of the president. Senate president Renan Calheiros is being investigated in a bribery investigation involving Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, and opposition leader Aécio Neves has been criticzed for his family’s secret bank account in Lichtenstein.
Related: A warrior to the end: Dilma Rousseff a sinner and saint in impeachment fight
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