União Brasil affirms that it is not the base of the Lula government, says Nascimento

The leader of União Brasil in the Chamber of Deputies, Elmar Nascimento, stated that the party does not manages to be the base of the Lula government in Congress, even having received three Ministries: Tourism, headed by Daniela Carneiro, Integration, with Waldez Góes, and Communication, with Juscelino Filho, who recently caused wear and tear in the government by using Brazilian Air Force (FAB) planes and public resources in per diems to fulfill private commitments .

The statements were made to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and published on the night of this Friday (17). “[Por causa da] party configuration, it is not convenient [entrar na base]. Imagine, I give you a statement that I am a base. I leave with 20 to 25 deputies contesting me. What will the government gain from this?” he told the newspaper.

According to Nascimento, “two thirds of the party agreed to talk to the government, and one third did not”, but depending on the agenda, all deputies can vote for or against. Even so, he stated that “60%, 70% of the party represents much more than other parties that were in the initial composition, such as PCdoB and PSB”.

Regarding the criticisms made by the president of the Workers’ Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann, about União Brasil not supporting the government, the party leader responded by questioning “what was the vote that took place to say that” and recalled that, as rapporteur in the Transition PEC Chamber, “if it weren’t for us, it wouldn’t have been approved. If anyone has any credit here, it’s us [- o União Brasil]”.

The leader of the party in the Chamber also stated that one of the reasons for the lack of support for the government in Congress is the delay in releasing the budget via amendments. “[O problema é a] agility. With the end of the rapporteur’s amendments, half remained in a taxable amendment and half remained in RP2 [recurso para ministérios]. And there was an agreement for the RP2 to continue to be executed as indicated by Congress, but in the programs that the government was pointing out. The more agile he is and manages to get this rolling, the more he will have a base linkage”, he said.