A chance for a fresh start

FUTURE generations of Brazilians will not look back on the last day of August as a proud moment in their history. The eviction from office of the hapless president, Dilma Rousseff, by a compromised congress on a flimsy pretext, though perfectly legal, was not the country’s finest democratic hour (see ). But, with luck, tomorrow’s Brazilians may also remember August 31st as the day the country began to deal seriously with the root causes of its economic and political dysfunction.That hope rests with Michel Temer, the former vice-president, who has been acting president since May and was formally sworn in after Ms Rousseff’s ousting. He is no saint. His Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement is as tainted by the Petrobras scandal as is Ms Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT). The scheme to funnel billions of dollars from the state-controlled oil company to governing parties and politicians stoked the political fury that led to Ms Rousseff’s impeachment, though it did not provide the legal grounds for it. But Mr Temer represents an improvement over the fallen president in two ways. Brazil’s political and economic crises had rendered her impotent well before the senate deposed her; he is a more adept politician, with a firmer base of support in congress. And he understands Brazil’s problems better than she does.