During her first term, Rousseff's presidency was rocked by the 2013 protests in Brazil, initiated mainly by the Free Fare Movement, in response to social inequality in the country.

Unlike in past presidential elections, the PSDB ticket consisted of two members of the party, with São Paulo Senator Aloysio Nunes serving as his running mate.

[6] For his running mate, Campos chose Marina Silva, an environmentalist politician from the state of Acre who performed unexpectedly well in the 2010 presidential election.

However, he died in a plane crash in Santos on 13 August 2014,[11] after which the party chose Silva, who had been his running mate, to replace him as the presidential candidate.

Both Dilma Rousseff (PT) and Aécio Neves (PSDB) employed automated accounts across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to amplify their messages as a form of propaganda.

[21] The Federal University of Espírito Santo and Folha de São Paulo identified a spike in bot activity during debates, with Neves' hashtags tripling in tweets within minutes.

Although Brazilian electoral laws prohibit paid social media campaign , private entities bypassed these restrictions by deploying bots on behalf of candidates.

[24] [25] Shortly before the election, a former executive of the state-run oil company Petrobras accused a minister, three state governors, six senators and dozens of congressmen from President Dilma Rousseff's Workers’ Party (PT) and several coalition allies of having accepted kickback payments from contracts.

The New York Times in the United States highlighted the reelection on the front page of the newspaper and states that the victory "endosses a leftist leader who has achieved important gains in reducing poverty and keeping unemployment low";[38] Argentine El Clarín highlighted on the front page that Dilma won by a narrow margin "at the end of a tough campaign, full of denounced and mutual accusations";[39] for the United Kingdom Financial Times, "Dilma now faces the task of uniting a country divided by the most aggressive campaign of recent times, to resurrect a creeping economy and pacify hostile markets";[40] Venezuelan El Universal highlighted on its first page Aécio Neves' reaction, who acknowledged his defeated and highlighted in his speech that "the priority now is to unite Brazil";[41] French Le Monde mentioned the defeat in São Paulo, main electoral college of the country, but "compensated by the victory in Minas Gerais, the second largest electoral college and Aécio Neves' political fief";[42] Spanish El País brings as a highlight an article signed by journalist Juan Arais, from Rio de Janeiro, entitled "The political change in Brazil will have to wait".

According to a research made by the Industry National Confederation (CNI) in that year, almost half of the interviewed (48%) began to use more public transportation and 34% don't have a health insurance anymore.

[55] The protests against Dilma Rousseff government, due to the results of Operation Car Wash, occurred in many regions of Brazil, having as one of the main goals the impeachment of the president.

[64] The acceptance of the impeachment request was considered by part of the press as a retaliation against the president's party, which deputies announced on that same day that they would vote against Cunha in the Chamber's Ethics Committee, where he was investigated for a supposed participation in the scheme denounced in Operation Car Wash. Cunha denied any "bargain" relation with the government, stating that "the decision to accept the impeachment is factual, is concrete, has clear tipification",[65] but kept attributing to president Rousseff responsibilities about the investigations against him.

[67] Due to the parliamentary recess and the sues filed in the Supreme Federal Court with the objective to decide formally the rite of the process only on 17 March 2016, the Chamber elected, with open voting, the 65 members of the Special Committee which analyzed the impeachment request against Dilma Rousseff.

[70] On 17 April 2016, a Sunday, the Chamber of Deputies, with 367 votes in favor, 137 against, besides 7 abstentions and 2 absences, impeached Rousseff and authorized the Federal Senate to install the process against the president.

[73][74] On 12 May 2016, with 55 favorable votes, 22 contrary and 2 absences, the Federal Senate authorized the opening of the impeachment process, and determined her suspension from the Presidency of the Republic for up to 180 days.