Congress recommends maintaining the 2020 fund and preserving the amendment – 11/24/2023 – Power

Party leaders signal to maintain the value of the electoral fund that will finance the campaigns of mayors and councilors next year at the same level as in 2020. At the same time, they are looking for alternatives to preserve parliamentary amendments.

Part of Congress, especially in the Chamber of Deputies, wants the electoral fund with the same amount as the last presidential election, around R$5 billion. The Senate defends updating the amount of the municipal campaign, when the fund distributed around R$2 billion.

With no agreement on where to get the money from, the rapporteur of the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law), deputy Danilo Forte (União Brasil-CE), will leave the matter to the LOA (Annual Budget Law). The LDO vote is scheduled for next week.

The impasse over the electoral fund was one of the main reasons for the delay in delivering Forte’s report. The presentation of the LDO was scheduled for the beginning of this week, but was postponed.

Federal deputies say that, as the debate on the electoral fund was pushed to the LOA, negotiations are still ongoing. Despite this, the Senate’s joint position in favor of the 2020 level should make the lower value prevail.

The unanimous position of the Senate was presented by senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI) to colleagues from both Houses during a closed meeting on Wednesday (22). Castro reinforced that the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), and all leaders are against a R$5 billion fund.

In the Senate’s assessment, there is no plausible justification for distributing the same amount used in a race for president, governors, senators and federal deputies to candidates for mayors and councilors —who only cover their municipalities—.

“If anyone in the Senate defends a contrary position, they are rebelling against a collegiate decision. From all the leaders who were present [na reunião do Senado em que o tema foi discutido]there was not a single disagreement”, said Castro.

When sending the LDO to Congress, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), proposed a lock so that the 2024 fund would not exceed the R$5 billion from last year’s campaign.

Even so, Congressional leaders and party leaders had initially been pushing for the fund to be inflated once again and reach a new record in 2024. The total could reach R$6 billion.

One of the main justifications was that, with the end of coalitions in proportional elections (in the case of councilors), the campaign would need more financing — this measure was already valid in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic limited the candidates’ activities.

The plan for the fund to reach an unprecedented value ended up abandoned in the face of not only resistance from senators and members of the government, but also the fear of criticism from the political class given the volume of public resources involved.

Even without knowing how to finance the electoral fund, Forte preserved the value of the bench amendments. Leaders of the government’s allied base in Congress proposed that the fund be filled with resources already existing in the Budget, such as parliamentary amendments.

Faced with the demand made by colleagues to maintain the amendments and a robust value in the fund at the same time, the LDO rapporteur asked them to start presenting solutions themselves.

At the last meeting of the Mixed Budget Committee, on Wednesday, Forte wished luck to the LOA rapporteur, deputy Luiz Carlos Motta (PL-SP).

“Thank God, and thanks to the diligence of our colleagues, we have resolved how the referral will be [do fundão eleitoral] at LDO. The problem was left to the LOA. I wish happiness to my friend Motta, who will need a lot of it,” he said.

Forte considered withdrawing resources from the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) to boost the electoral fund, but abandoned the idea.

Until 2015, large companies, such as banks and construction companies, were mainly responsible for financing candidates. That year, the STF (Supreme Federal Court) prohibited corporate donations on the grounds that economic power unbalanced the democratic game.

For the 2018 elections, the electoral fund was created, which adds to the existing resources of the party fund, currently around R$1.2 billion per year.

The articulation of parties for a new record for the fundão next year generated criticism from members of the government, mainly from the economic area — which is trying to contain the increase in expenses.