Dilma was not fragile or incapable, says book author – 05/18/2023 – Politics

The path that led to the fall of President Dilma Rousseff (PT), as presented in “Operação Impeachment”, a new book by political scientist Fernando Limongi, can be compared to the succession of tensions over the course of a chess match.

There are not exactly new pieces in the game presented by the author, a professor of political science at USP and FGV. A central concern of Limongi is, in fact, to show the real strength of some figures on this board. Dilma, for example, was not as fragile or awkward as is often said.

Based on research that spanned more than five years, he also demonstrates how the Lava Jato operation was a decisive piece for the impeachment, which ended in August 2016. Câmara, Eduardo Cunha (today in the PTB, at that time in the PMDB), generally more associated with this episode.

When talking about the operation over the almost 300 pages of the book, Limongi moves from the nerve center of Curitiba –represented mainly by the then attorney Deltan Dallagnol and judge Sergio Moro– to that of Brasília –headed by Rodrigo Janot, at the time attorney general .

“Presidents are not fragile creatures, exposed to the risk of being overthrown at any and every moment for minor issues”, he writes. “Contrary to what the legend says, Dilma reacted, using the weapons at her disposal to neutralize” the threats.

The author recalls the successful ministerial reform promoted by the president in September 2015, when he won the support, at least temporarily, of the PMDB in Rio. It was an occasion when Cunha was eager to put the impeachment on the agenda, but he did not go ahead because he knew he would lose the vote in Congress.

“This is an episode, for example, in which the president won. Many analyzes focus on Dilma’s incapacity, seen as the opposite of Lula: he as a genius, she as a beast. This is nonsense”, says Limongi .

“The version that she herself created the conditions for her impeachment makes no sense. Dilma was wrong, but many others were wrong too.”

In early 2016, the federal government was breathing – in the words of the author, the “burial of the impeachment was ordered”.

At the end of January, however, the first bomb launched by Lava Jato that year exploded, the Triple X operation, which highlighted the Guarujá apartment, supposedly belonging to Lula.

The following month, Operation Acarajé took place, which targeted Odebrecht’s resources for the 2014 campaign, throwing Dilma into the investigative turmoil. In March, Operation Aletheia surprised Lula by coercively leading him to give testimony to the Federal Police.

It is true that Lava Jato initiatives in 2015 had undermined the federal government, but the impeachment was sealed even in this trifecta of operations in the first quarter of 2016. “Curitiba warned the square that it would not accept commitments, that it would go to the end. every day”, records Limongi.

The avenue was open to Cunha, to parties like the PSDB and to groups like the MBL (Movimento Brasil Livre).

Among the toucans, Aécio Neves is the most cited name in the book.

“What did he do by questioning the result of the polls [após sua derrota para Dilma, em outubro de 2014] and then requesting an audit from the TSE is unprecedented in the history of redemocratization. Aécio behaved like a spoiled child, who sought support from the extreme right,” he says.

Limongi criticizes the behavior of the press in this episode. “Editorials and columns in the major newspapers minimized the rupture that Aécio promoted at that moment.”

“Operação Impeachment” can be seen as a panel of specific conflicts that intertwined over the years and culminated in the fall of Dilma, an “atomic bomb whose toxic effects are still being felt”.

Among these dissonances explored by the book is the former president’s relationship with the current President of the Planalto.

“I never saw Dilma and Lula as everyone sees her, that is, her as his lieutenant, warming up the chair for Lula to return. There were a series of conflicts between the two. An example is the little presence of Construindo um Novo Brasil [principal grupo dentro do PT, com os nomes mais ligados ao Lula] among the relevant positions in Dilma’s second term.”

In Limongi’s chess, by the way, the PT is another piece that goes on the attack. And not always to defend Dilma.