On Thursday, Brazil's Senate voted 55 to 22 to suspend President Dilma Rousseff, the first step in bringing an impeachment trial against the controversial, embattled national figure.

Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer has stepped up to replace her as interim leader of Brazil during the trial period, which could last up to six months, meaning Rousseff could still be suspended from her presidency during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer.

The Brazilian Senate debated for 20 hours, through the night on Wednesday, over whether to launch the impeachment trial against Rousseff.

Controversy & Economics

The Senate eventually decided to proceed, and will now begin the process to decided if the suspended leader of Brazil broke the law by misappropriating funds from state banks to conceal problems with the country's budget deficit from the public during her reelection campaign in 2014 -- ostensibly a dishonest and possibly illegal budgetary "slight of hand," as The New York Times put it, implemented to make the country's finances seem healthier.

Brazil's economy has not recovered from its deepest recession in 10 years, and millions of working Brazilians have been falling further into poverty, after decades of promising economic growth. Unemployment in Brazil has reached nine percent, while inflation is higher than it has been in over a decade.

Popular and political opposition to Rousseff's reign became more pronounced and bitter after a rash of business and government scandals involving corruption, graft, and bribes, like Petrobras, began to surface under the now-suspended president's watch.

The mix of scandals -- exposing massive dysfunction within the political and economic system -- and the painful, persistent economic downturn in the country created a climate that lead to the watershed impeachment moment for Rousseff. Reuters reported that fireworks were set off across Brazil after the Senate's vote to suspend Rousseff,

Rousseff Cries 'Coup'

In her reaction to the vote, Rousseff announced in a televised speech that she would fight against her ouster and prove her innocence in the coming impeachment trial, which she called "fraudulent" and "a coup."

"I may have made mistakes but I did not commit any crime," said Rousseff in the speech, as Reuters reported. "I never imagined that it would be necessary to fight once again against a coup in this country," she added.

Now that both the lower house of Brazil's Congress and the Senate have voted for impeachment, and Rousseff has been suspended from office, the Senate trial will begin and has an allotted 180 days to proceed.

That time period will expire on November 8, well after the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics have concluded. If two thirds or more of the Senate find Rousseff guilty, she will be permanently removed from office.

Temer Takes Over

While some pro-Rousseff demonstrators briefly clashed with police in the country's capital city after the vote, supporters outside of Rousseff's press conference chanted "Temer out!"

The supporters were referring to the centrist interim president, who was once part of a coalition government with Rousseff and her party, but is looked at with suspicion now for encouraging and helping to arrange the impeachment of his former ally.

Temer is president of Brazil's largest political party (PMDB), which according to the BBC, abandoned a coalition with Rousseff's leftist Workers Party government in March.

Temer has already named 21 nominees for his cabinet, including Romero Juca, an official that's currently under investigation as part of the Petrobras scandal.

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