Advancement of the center generates complaints among Lula’s allies – 10/29/2023 – Power
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The advance of centrão parties over federal government positions and the Budget has generated criticism among allies of President Lula (PT).
Last week, Lula handed over command of Caixa Econômica Federal to career civil servant Carlos Vieira, who was appointed by the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). Still, parties demand more funding and positions.
The pressure from the center comes at a time when the government seeks to guarantee support in Congress, especially for the approval of economic agendas.
Lula himself acknowledged that he made an agreement with the PP and Republicans for these acronyms to enter the government. He stated that he “needed these votes” in the Legislature.
“I made an agreement with the PP, with Republicans, I think it’s their right, who would like to have space with the government, to nominate a person [Vieira, indicado por Lira] who was at Caixa, was once at Caixa, was once in Dilma’s government, was once at the Ministry of Cities, a person who has the CV for that. And together they have more than 100 votes, I needed these votes to continue the government”, he said on Friday (27).
On the same day, the president of the PT, deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR), criticized the mobilization of parliamentarians to control even larger slices of the Budget. The deputy stated, on social media, that proposals for the government to pay for more amendments “only serve to serve insatiable political interests.”
“At a time when the country needs to direct investments towards growth and structuring public policies, deputies want to force the government to pay for amendments to permanent committees. It is yet another undue intervention in the application of the Union Budget”, wrote Gleisi on the X platform, the former Twitter.
The deputy criticized discussions in Congress to make the execution of commission amendments mandatory, that is, to force the government to pay a sum corresponding to R$7.5 billion in 2023. If approved, this change reduces the control of the Lula government on the execution of the 2024 Budget, the year of municipal elections.
The Congress leadership is still evaluating other ways to dictate the pace of the release of amendments and tie the execution of the budget to its interests, further dehydrating the government’s power.
As shown by Sheet, Palácio do Planalto seeks ways to maintain influence over the fate of these resources. Talks are moving toward an increase in the amount reserved for next year’s amendments, while preserving the government’s power over this figure.
When speaking about her own departure from the position of president of Caixa (to hand over control of the bank to the center), Rita Serrano thanked Lula for the invitation to join the government, but said on social media that it is “necessary and urgent to think about another way of doing politics.”
Rita Serrano also stated that she hopes to leave as a legacy “the message that it is necessary to confront misogyny”.
Being a woman in spaces of power is always challenging. It wasn’t easy to see my name exposed for months on end in the press. I hope to leave as a legacy the message that it is necessary to face misogyny, that it is possible for a career employee to be president of a large bank and deliver results, that it is possible to have an efficient and honest public bank, that it is necessary and urgent think of another way of doing politics and having humanized relationships at work
The change at Caixa also generated criticism among Lula supporters in social movements and entities linked to workers.
“Comrade Rita Serrano had been doing an excellent job at Caixa. Unfortunately, we lost one of the biggest instruments for implementing public policies for the center”, said the general coordinator of the FUP (Fedação Única dos Petroleiros), Deyvid Bacelar, on social media.
“We need to improve our correlation of forces in the National Congress by electing left-wing, progressive and developmental parliamentarians who do not leave governments hostage to this blackmail,” Bacelar wrote.
In a statement, Fenag (National Federation of Caixa Econômica Federal Managers’ Associations) said it regrets Rita Serrano’s departure. The entity said that she had suffered attacks and “fought a fierce battle” in office, “but did not resist.”
The president of Contraf-CUT (National Confederation of Financial Workers), Juvandia Moreira, also criticized the change in command of the bank.
“We will not accept that the policy of the past government be implemented in the company, such as the dismantling of the company and its function as a public bank. Nor setbacks in the people management policy”, she said, in a note published by the entity.
Despite having criticized the centrão’s relationship with Jair Bolsonaro during the electoral campaign, Lula allied himself with the same group and has repeatedly handed over public positions and funds in exchange for support for votes in the Legislature.
“I didn’t negotiate with the centrão, I don’t talk to the centrão, you’ve never seen me hold a meeting with the centrão. I only talk to political parties that are legalized, that have elected benches. Therefore, I have to talk to them , to establish an agreement”, said Lula last week.
The government’s base in Congress is fragile. Recently, the Senate rejected Igor Roque’s nomination for command of the DPU (Union Public Defender’s Office).
In the hours following the exchange at Caixa, however, the Chamber unlocked the vote on the proposal to tax offshore companies and super-rich funds.
Changes at Caixa and ministries to accommodate allies from the center also reduced the presence of women in senior positions.
Lula blamed the parties for the reduction in female presence in the Executive. “When a political party has to nominate a person and there is no woman, I can’t do anything,” said the president last week.
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