BRASÍLIA: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed Tuesday to serve out her full term, on the eve of a Senate vote on opening an impeachment trial that could mark her last day in office.
"I want to assure you that for me, the last day of my term is December 31, 2018," Rousseff told a women's forum in Brasilia, where senators are expected to suspend the country's first woman president from office in a session that opens Wednesday.
"I am going to fight (impeachment) with all my strength, using all means available," Rousseff vowed, saying that included both legal means and a "struggle" in the streets.
She repeated her oft-used line that the impeachment process is a "coup."
She accused her vice president-turned-nemesis, Michel Temer, of plotting against her along with suspended house speaker Eduardo Cunha, recently stripped of his post over allegations of abusing his office.
"The two of them are promoting this coup, a coup carried out not with arms, not with bayonets, but by tearing up our constitution," she said, adding that Brazil was entrenched in "a fight for democracy."
"These people can't win the presidency through a popular vote, because we're not going to vote for their project, which is a project to dismantle Brazil," she said.
"I carry within me the vital force of the 33 million Brazilians who escaped poverty," she added, referring to the social gains made under progressive programs launched during 13 years of rule by the left-wing Workers' Party.
Rousseff said the thought of resigning amid the political crisis gripping the country "never crossed my mind," and called herself an "uncomfortable figure" for her opponents because of her determination to fulfill her mandate.
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