Defense wants to ban active-duty military personnel in civilian positions – 03/12/2023 – Power

The Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, intends to present in the coming days to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) a proposal to prevent military personnel who assume political or civilian positions from remaining in active duty.

The suggestion was born from conversations between Múcio and the commander of the Army, General Tomás Paiva. Commanders Marcos Olsen (Navy) and Marcelo Damasceno (Aeronautics) also did not oppose the idea.

According to reports of generals made to the Sheetthe advancement of a proposal of this type also seeks to prevent deeper changes, such as the PT’s attempt to amend article 142 of the Constitution, from advancing in the National Congress —despite the parliamentary advisory of the Army seeing little chance of a PEC on the subject succeeding .

In the assessment of these sources, the Armed Forces became politicized during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and, at this moment, the tidying brake would be the approval of a proposal to guarantee that military personnel are automatically taken to the reserve if they want to officially join the government.

General Tomás Paiva will meet next week with federal deputy Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP) to talk about the matter. The PT gathers signatures for a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) whose objective is to amend Article 142 and end GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order) military operations.

Interlocutors of the commander of the Army affirm that Tomás will expose his concerns with the change of the constitutional text. In response, he wants to know if the Defense proposal would have Zarattini’s support.

It is not yet defined whether the change will occur by PEC or a complementary bill, for which approval requires fewer votes.

A complementary bill would be enough to change the Military Statute. The current text provides that an officer will only go to the reserve after spending two years in a civilian position, such as minister or secretary.

It is being evaluated, however, to make a change in a PEC so that the new rule is included in the Constitution —which would make it difficult, for example, for future governments to return to the old rule.

Former deputy Perpétua Almeida (PC do B-AC) filed in 2021 a proposal to amend the Constitution on the subject. At the time, the text was nicknamed PEC Pazuello, in reference to General Eduardo Pazuello who, while still active, held the position of Minister of Health.

“The Armed Forces […] must not be submitted to partisan interests, but neither can they deviate from their constitutional function to participate in the management of government policies, which, by democratic definition, are transitory”, wrote Almeida.

She still advocated that the change be included in the Constitution to “expand its democratic and republican reach” and, thus, improve the “constitutional model of impartiality and non-partisanship of the Armed Forces”.

“The history of Brazil and the Constitution itself bring us the certainty that the presence of active duty military, serving governments and participating in the political party struggle, can contaminate the troops with the politicization and partisanship of their body, a harmful phenomenon for the democracy,” he concludes.

The proposal was not even voted on by the Constitution and Justice Committee. With the resistance of Bolsonarism, deputy Chris Tonietto (PL-RJ) was appointed rapporteur.

After she lost her role, Deputy General Peternelli (União Brasil-SP) was chosen to present an opinion on the proposal, but ended his term in 2022 without reporting the text.