Lula, Rousseff put pressure on Temer after corruption charges

BRASILIA - After Brazilian Supreme Court charged President Michel Temer of corruption on Monday, his two predecessors, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, were quick to call for his resignation on Tuesday.

Speaking to Radio Itatiaia, Lula said that Temer might decide to resign, if pressure from the society was strong enough.

"The ideal would be a peaceful process for Temer to call for an early election, so we can elect, before October 2018, a new president and new Congress," said Lula, who was the founder of the Workers' Party (PT) and Brazilian president from 2003 to 2011.

Lula added that an investigation into Temer was needed to find out "if the accusations are true."

Meanwhile, Rousseff also reacted to the charges against Temer by writing on her website that the "coup of 2016," referring to her impeachment, had left the country in the hands of a president charged with corruption.

Rousseff, succeeding Lula as president from 2011 till her impeachment in last August for breaking budgetary laws, accused the political parties and industrial sectors which supported her impeachment of "being directly responsible for his (Temer) rise." Temer, then vice president to Rousseff, assumed the powers and became the president after the impeachment.