8/1 CPI loses traction and has uncertain installation date – 05/06/2023 – Power

After pressure, invasion of meeting and protests for its installation, the joint CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of January 8 suffered a cooling off even before the beginning and, ten days after its creation, still does not have a set date to be installed in fact.

On the one hand, parties more aligned with the government will occupy the majority of seats and argue that there are much more relevant issues to deal with than an event that is the object of extensive investigation by the Federal Police, Public Ministry and Judiciary.

On the other hand, oppositionists, who will be a minority in the commission, already claim to consider the CPI of the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) as the most promising potential focus of government wear and tear.

This Friday (5), the president of Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), gave the endorsement for the progress of the mixed CPI when answering the points of order presented by the opposition —which, in theory, had been postponing its opening.

In the decision, Pacheco confirmed two maneuvers that help Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to have a majority in his favor in the group.

Currently, Lula’s base hopes to have 21 out of the 36 vacancies on the commission – the party nominations have not officially been made yet.

It was the opposition who, for the most part, fought for the installation of the mixed CPI in Congress.

On April 18, when the ruling base managed to postpone, for the second time, the reading of the commission’s request, deputies such as Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Bia Kicis (PL-DF) even invaded a meeting of Senate leaders to protest.

The scenario changed a day later, with the revelation of images from the internal cameras of the Palácio do Planalto by CNN, which resulted in the resignation of the then minister of the Institutional Security Office, General Gonçalves Dias.

The government, then, not only started to support the CPI, but maneuvered to guarantee a majority in the group.

Under reserve, parliamentarians assess that, with an opposition without strength and a government preoccupied with other battles in Congress, the CPI loses importance and may take time to be officially installed, in addition to having a chance of becoming innocuous.

The expectation is that the members of the CPI will be nominated next week and their installation will take place in the next, but there are already those who admit that the group was born without importance or that it might not even be born at all.

Reflecting this, the choice of the positions of rapporteur and president has not generated much dispute at the moment.

As the Panel column of the Sheeteven Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), one of the few names in the government base that, since the beginning of the year, defended the creation of the commission, has been showing signs that he is no longer interested in the rapporteurship, a position that he came to postulate.

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), is traveling abroad until next Thursday (11), which also contributes to the fact that no decision is made until then.

Leaders of the House also defend that the installation of the commission takes place after the debate on the new fiscal framework, a matter considered a priority by the government and by parliamentarians — preventing it from being contaminated by the political dispute of the CPI.

In the Chamber, opposition deputies begin to focus their efforts on the MST’s CPI.

“For me she [a CPI do 8/1] it will be mediatic rather than having a practical result. I think the MST will be more prominent, because the CPI is an instrument of opposition. She [na do 8/1] it’s government. So forget it, this is not CPI. There [na do MST] the stick will sing. There will be a CPI”, says deputy Sóstenes Cavalcanti (PL-RJ), one of the main leaders of the opposition and the evangelical group in the Chamber.

Already in the Senate, Rogério Marinho (PL-RN) indicates that he will bet on parliamentarians declared independent to try to give greater traction to the mixed commission.

“The signatures were collected, the proven fact is public and notorious, there is a willingness on our part, the opposition, from the beginning [para que ela aconteça] and an exacerbated resistance from the federal government for it not to happen”, stated Marinho.

“We are going to do our part so that there are no excuses for it not to be installed”, he added, saying that it would be a “catastrophe from a legal point of view” for it not to be carried out.

Senator Otto Alencar (PSD-BA) understands that, while the Covid CPI was necessary due to the lack of action by other instances of the State, in the case of coup acts, the police and the Judiciary are already acting effectively.

“My opinion is that it lost space and time to be installed. We are waiting for the main defenders of the CPI, the leaders of the opposition, and it seems to me that there has been a cooling off”, he affirmed.

Already the leader of the government in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), who was against the installation of the CPI at first, maintains the discourse that the investigation has the potential to affect precisely the opposition, and not the government.

“A lot of people who were very anxious to make the CPI are not as anxious as they were before”, said the petista.