Gleisi hits back at Pacheco: ‘Ending re-election is a setback’ – 12/17/2023 – Power

Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR), president of the party and federal deputy, criticized this Sunday (17) the idea of ​​extinguishing the re-election for president of the Republic, defended by the president of the Senate and Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).

Gleisi stated that the re-election was an opportunistic initiative by the PSDB — the device was created by the then Tucano president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1997 —, but that it is beneficial for democracy. FHC himself made a mea culpa in 2020 and said that the measure “historically was a mistake”.

“Even if it only comes into effect from 2030, the proposal to end the re-election of presidents is opportunistic and represents a setback in the democratic representation of the majority of the population,” she said, on social media.

Recently, Pacheco said that he should put an end to the possibility of reappointment as President.

In Gleisi’s view, re-election “became a problem” only after the PT governments — the first administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) came right after FHC.

“Since the coup against Dilma [Rousseff]the powers of the Presidency have been reduced and even usurped by Congress, especially in the execution of the Budget, which favors the re-election of the conservative majority, to the detriment of the country’s interests”, he added, in reference to the impeachment process and in yet another criticism of the center.

Recently, Pacheco, who has already stated that he intends to debate the institution of a mandate for ministers of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), said that another possible agenda in the House is reelection for President of the Republic.

“We are going to discuss the institution of re-election in Brazil, the coincidence of elections, possibly passing mandates from 4 to 5 years without re-election. These are ideas put forward that affect the Executive Branch, but which are also not an affront. They are reflections and deliberations, which is Congress’s role to play”, he stated.

Congress has advanced on issues that conflict with the STF’s positions, such as, for example, in discussions on abortion and the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands.

Furthermore, parliamentarians tried to deliberate on a mini-electoral reform project in 2023 to dehydrate the female and black quotas, but the proposal ended up being blocked in the Senate.

In 2007, already in his second term, Lula himself defended the end of reelection, while Congress discussed a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) on the topic.

In the last electoral campaign, in 2022, the PT member even indicated that he would not run for a fourth term — a point that is still open, currently.