Arthur Lira is re-elected in the Chamber with record votes – 02/01/2023 – Politics

Federal deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), leader of the centrão, was re-elected this Wednesday (1st) for another two years as president of the Chamber.

He received 464 out of a total of 508 votes, which makes him the record holder since the country’s redemocratization.

Until then, this position was occupied by Ibsen Pinheiro (MDB-RS), in 1991, and João Paulo Cunha (PT-SP), in 2003, both elected with 434 votes in the first round.

Lira’s opponents in the dispute belong to small parties and never had a real prospect of victory. Chico Alencar (PSOL-RJ) had 21 votes and Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS), 19.

Lira obtained a wide range of support, from the PL of Jair Bolsonaro to the PT of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who did not launch a competing candidacy for fear of defeat, since the left controls only about a quarter of the seats in the House.

The president of the Chamber said that he received a phone call from Lula congratulating him on his victory. On a social network, the PT spoke about the connection. “I called just now to congratulate Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco on their re-election to the presidency of the House and Senate. I wish good management. Our country needs strong and democratic institutions.”

In a speech before the vote, Lira recalled projects that were voted on in his first term, such as the law of the democratic rule of law, which revoked the National Security Law that had been in force since the military dictatorship.

“I will never passively agree with the invalidation of acts by appeal of a minority in higher courts. If elected, I want to establish with the Executive Power not a subordination relationship, but a pact to improve and advance public policies from the careful listening of opinion of our committees,” he said.

He said he firmly defends the right to freedom of expression, “as long as it does not pose a threat to the only regime that grants us that right, which is our democracy.” “I highlight my commitment, which is to continue to be a facilitator of debates and decisions in this house of absolute freedom and autonomy for each parliamentarian.”

After the election, Lira raised the tone in her speech and defended the application of the rigor of the law against coup plotters who destroyed buildings of Congress, the Planalto Palace and the STF (Federal Supreme Court) on January 8. He also preached containment of Powers and said it was “time to deflate”.

Chico Alencar gave a speech criticizing the two rivals for not mentioning the coup acts of January 8 in their speeches. At that moment, deputies allied with former president Bolsonaro, such as Zé Trovão (PL-PR), chanted “Lula thief, your place is in prison”. They were answered by supporters of the president who shouted “No amnesty”.

Marcel van Hattem criticized the construction of Lira’s alliance arc. “I cannot agree with the ticket that was created, yes, with an agreement between the parties, which will give the PT the presidency of the CCJ [Comissão de Constituição e Justiça, a mais importante da Câmara] in the first year. Where is that a good deal?”

He also regretted what he saw as a restriction on the freedom of expression of deputies. “This is a plural house, for everyone, but at the moment we don’t see it actually being plural, because many parliamentarians have their right to demonstrate curtailed in disagreement with what our Constitution says”, he said.

The current leader of the centrão came to command of the Chamber for the first time in 2021, supported by then President Bolsonaro. On the occasion, he defeated Baleia Rossi (MDB-SP) by 302 votes against 145. Rossi was supported by the then President of the House, Rodrigo Maia (RJ).

Lira achieved victory at the time supported in large part by the management and distribution, among parliamentarians, of the so-called rapporteur’s amendments, which were the billionaire funds of the federal Budget.

The management of these funds was delegated to him by Bolsonaro. In return, Lira guaranteed the then president a base of political support and protection against impeachment proceedings.

After Bolsonaro’s defeat by Lula in October last year, the mayor quickly moved to the political spectrum closer to the president-elect, consolidating his re-election for another two years in office.

Due to the fragility of the left, Lula and the PT gave up on launching a candidacy against the centrão leader.

At the same time, Lira gestured closer. In particular, the immediate public recognition of Lula’s victory, the approval of the PEC that gave the new government budgetary breath and, finally, the reaction against the coup vandals of January 8th.

He has been giving signs to the government that he will manage the Planalto Palace in a non-hostile manner, but recent history is full of examples of ruptures and betrayals in politics.

Arthur Lira is 53 years old and is in his fourth consecutive term as a federal deputy.

He was the most voted House candidate in his state in October, having received nearly 200,000 votes.

Before presiding over the Chamber for the first time, he was president of the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) and leader of the PP.

The parliamentarian also had several occurrences in court. In 2022, he ran for his second election supported by a provisional decision that he obtained in 2018 and that has been standing for more than four years without the Justice taking a position on the issue.

Lira and other parliamentarians were convicted by the Justice of Alagoas as a result of Operation Taturana, by the Federal Police, which investigated an alleged scheme to divert resources from the Legislative Assembly. The current president of the Chamber was a state deputy from 1999 to 2010.

In this action, Lira was convicted of impropriety for paying personal loans with office funds and using checks issued from the Assembly account to guarantee personal financing.

In 2016, the Court of Justice of Alagoas confirmed the conviction, with the suspension of political rights for ten years. Two years later, however, the judge of the TJ Celyrio Adamastor Tenório Accioly released the deputy’s candidacy by granting suspensive effect to a special appeal filed by him.

This appeal has been in the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) since the end of 2020, without conclusion. He was under the rapporteurship of Og Fernandes until the end of August 2022 and, after that, he passed to the office of Minister Humberto Martins.

The re-elected president of the Chamber was also the target of Lava Jato in Paraná and in the STF (Federal Supreme Court). Justice dismissed almost all of these cases, with the exception of one, outside the scope of the operation.

The deputy had four actions arising from Lava Jato rejected by the STF, three by the Second Panel and one by the plenary.

Two were directly rejected (receipt of bribes from UTC and contracts from Petrobras’ supply department), one was accepted, but later rejected after a change in the composition of the group (participation in the PP’s “quadrillion”, and the last one was rejected after the Attorney General’s Office -General of the Republic offers a complaint (receipt of BRL 1.6 million from Queiroz Galvão), but then goes back and recommends that it be shelved.

Outside of Lava Jato, the parliamentarian was accepted by the STF, in 2019, on charges of receiving R$ 106,000 in bribes in 2012 from the then president of the Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos (CBTU), Francisco Colombo, in exchange for support to maintain him in charge.

The inquiry was paralyzed at the end of 2020 at the request of Minister Dias Toffoli and has been under the responsibility of André Mendonça since March last year.

Lira has always denied any participation in the irregularities.

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ELECTED TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CHAMBER:

• 1st Vice-Presidency: Marcos Pereira (Republicanos-SP) – 458 votes
• 2nd Vice-President: Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ) – 385 votes
• 1st Secretary: Luciano Bivar (União Brasil-PE) – 411 votes
• 2nd Secretariat: Maria do Rosário (PT-RS) – 371 votes
• 3rd Secretariat: Júlio Cesar (PSD-PI) – 467 votes
• 4th Secretaryto: Lucio Mosquini (MDB-RO) – 447 votes