PF operation anticipates inevitable test for Lula – 9/2/2023 – Bruno Boghossian

The Federal Police’s visit to the municipality of Vitorino Freire (MA) anticipates an inevitable test for Lula. At a time when the centrão expands its domains in government, the operation involving Minister Juscelino Filho forces the PT to draw limits of tolerance and show how far he will go to preserve political arrangements.

Juscelino is Lula’s prime minister cited in fresh suspicions of corruption. According to the PF, the politician sent money for amendments to the municipality led by his sister, warned business friends who manipulated bids and received payments from a shell company. He denies wrongdoing.

Two elements offer Lula some relief in the story. The first is the fact that the Federal Police were free to scrutinize transactions without protecting a member of the highest echelon. The second is the concentration of payments in the government of Jair Bolsonaro, as part of the market for amendments that took shape in that period.

These same factors also cause discomfort. The PF’s performance under Lula infuriated the centrão when Arthur Lira came under the radar of the investigation into the purchase of robotics kits. In addition, the congressional market remains active, and the same actors remain in control of federal agencies through which money passes, such as Codevasf.

At the beginning of the government, Lula kept Juscelino in office to avoid a crisis with his godfathers in the center. But the scheme of sharing power with this and other political groups means that the minister’s case is unlikely to remain isolated. Reform to suit the PP and the Republicans deepens the risk.

The revulsion against lavajatismo imposed on Lula a resistance to pressure provoked by suspicions of corruption. The president will have to show at what point these suspicions can be considered concrete enough to justify the dismissal of a minister. If he is concerned only with political stability, the PT can grant a safe-conduct for deviations in the government.

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