Conflict between councilors marks session in the Chamber of Porto Alegre

This Wednesday’s session (8) was marked by a tense atmosphere and a fight between parliamentarians. The trigger for the conflict was the recording of an audio brought to light by councilor Mônica Leal (PP) in which she exposes a controversial opinion expressed by congressman Tiago Albrecht (Novo) on Rede Pampa de Televisão. In the material, Albrecht defends a tax reform and criticizes the spending of councilors in the City Council – which he considers exaggerated in relation to the Legislative of other municipalities. “The councilor has R$ 17 thousand to spend, plus his salary. He has to cut the breasts of several layers of the public service, including councilors of Porto Alegre”, he said.

Other parliamentarians also showed dissatisfaction with Albrecht’s statements on the broadcaster and asked for an inquiry to be opened in the Chamber’s Ethics Committee. The most forceful speech came from former president of the house Idenir Cecchim (MDB), who asked the current president of the Chamber to forward the case to judgment. “You can let the substitute know that he is about to take over, because we are going to revoke his mandate”. “He’s a malicious opportunist,” blustered Cecchim.

After strong pressure from colleagues, Albrecht withdrew from the plenary and returned only when tempers were already appeased. To Jornal do Comércio, the councilor said he does not believe that his statement will be forwarded to the Ethics Commission. “The heat of the moment makes people get excited, I don’t believe there is materiality for that. Certainly the discussion will be more in the field of political disagreement.”

The session also approved with a tight score a motion to repudiate the anti-democratic acts that took place in Brasília on January 8. The article was authored by councilors Aldacir Oliboni (PT), Giovani Culau and the collective (PCdoB), Engenheiro Comassetto (PT), Pedro Ruas (PSOL) and Karen Santos (PSOL). The motion passed with 13 votes in favor and 12 against.

The article generated distrust from some parliamentarians due to the fact that the text carried the term “terrorist” – a reference to the vandals who destroyed the buildings of the Three Powers in Brasília. This bothered parliamentarians who said it was a very serious linguistic error. “Vandalism is different from terrorism”, defended councilor Alexadre Bobadra (PL).

One of the co-authors of the article, Giovani Culau and the collective (PCdoB), argued that the term used to refer to the protesters is irrelevant in the face of the event. “I would not like to have a discussion about linguistics, but about politics. We cannot relativize what happened in Brasília, democracy needs to be respected”.