Agriculture bench criticizes Lula for comparing Congress to “fox guarding the henhouse”

The Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA) criticized President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) this Sunday (3) for comparing Congress to a “fox guarding the henhouse” when talking about the vetoes of the time frame. The PT member made the statement at an event with social movements at the Climate Summit, COP28, in Dubai. The agricultural bench stated that the president “signals for the criminalization of rural production in Brazil”.

“While all countries around the world lead by example of sustainability, we have a president who criminalizes the maximum representation of the Brazilian population, federal deputies and senators, responsible for the construction of integral legislation that promotes the liturgy of equal rights, legal security and of property rights, in which the rights of a Brazilian, indigenous or not, do not overlap with others”, said the FPA, in a note.

In September, the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands was approved by Congress and, later, vetoed by the president. However, parliamentarians must decide whether to maintain or overturn the vetoes this week. After coordination between the FPA and the opposition, the expectation is that the vetoes will be overturned. The PT member demanded greater mobilization of social movements in politics.

“We have to prepare ourselves to understand the following: either we build a democratic force capable of winning the Legislative Power, the Executive Power and carrying out the transformation you want, or we will see what happened with the time frame. Wanting a fox to take care of our henhouse is believing too much”, said Lula.

“Just look at the geopolitics of the National Congress and you knew that the only chance we had was the one voted on by the Supreme Court. And that’s why I vetoed it,” she added. The Federal Supreme Court (STF) declared the thesis of the time frame unconstitutional on September 21st.

For the FPA, the president’s intention is “to govern with the Federal Supreme Court to the detriment of dialogue with Parliament”. The agricultural bench stated that “by aligning dictatorships around the world, Lula signals the criminalization of rural production in Brazil, the weakening of constitutional rights, in search of perpetuation in power”.