Government acts to withdraw CPI signatures from 1/8 – 03/20/2023 – Power

Senators from the base of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) withdrew signatures from the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the Senate in the face of the government’s offensive to bar investigations in Congress into the January 8 attacks.

Last week, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), told the STF (Federal Supreme Court) that the request was presented in the last legislature —which ended in January— and he gave until Friday (17) for Senators either re-signed or backed down.

Of the 44 parliamentarians in the current legislature who supported Senator Soraya Thronicke’s request for a CPI (União Brasil-MS), only 15 confirmed the signatures —12 unless required. Nine turned back, including the leader of the government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP).

Another 20 did not sign the document again or withdraw their signatures. Thronicke’s advisors stated that the senator is still awaiting a definitive position from the Board’s General Secretariat because, as there is no regulatory provision for ratification, these parliamentarians would be in “limbo”.

Despite this, most of the senators on the list belong to the PSD and the MDB, which are part of the government, or to the PT itself. This group includes, for example, the leader of the government in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), and senators Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) and Paulo Paim (PT-RS).

Thronicke got the necessary 27 signatures in January and called the Supreme Court to force the President of the Senate to open investigations. Pacheco argued, however, that the internal regulations determine that the applications be filed at the end of the legislature.

Amidst Lula’s criticisms of the opening of an investigation in Congress, grassroots legislators had already stated that they would not support the request for a CPI again, if the senator was forced to collect signatures for the second time.

The group alleges that, unlike what happened in the CPI of the pandemic, the authorities are already looking into the people who financed, stimulated and destroyed the headquarters of the three Powers; and that any parliamentary committee can disrupt the progress of economic agendas.

As shown to Sheet, the opposition has been betting on the mixed CPI, with the participation of the Chamber of Deputies, given the robust base of the government in the Senate. The application was presented by the Bolsonarist federal deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE).

“What we want is the CPMI. Chamber and Senate in the same commission. The Senate CPI was just a smokescreen. Bait. We followed our strategy. CPMI now!”, said this Monday (20) the leader of the PL in the Senate, Carlos Portinho (RJ).

“What Brazilians really want is the immediate installation of a mixed commission, that is, involving the Chamber and the Senate. This makes all the difference in the search for the truth about the acts of 1/8, since both houses were attacked”, stated the senator. opponent Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE).

In the last week, former president Jair Bolsonaro also advised PL congressmen to focus on the mixed CPI.

On Monday, the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) filed over 150 complaints against people involved in the acts. Of the total, 134 were arrested on January 9 in front of the HQ (Army Headquarters), in Brasília, and are accused of inciting the crimes.

The PGR states that the denunciations are being prepared according to the conduct of each person, but that, in general, people can answer for incitement equivalent to the animosity of the Armed Forces against the Constitutional Powers and criminal association.

The other 16 people denounced on Monday were arrested in the act at the Planalto Palace on January 8 and had their arrests replaced by precautionary measures such as the use of electronic anklets and a ban on maintaining contact with the other investigated.

The Public Ministry wants them to be held accountable for the crimes of armed criminal association; violent abolition of the democratic rule of law (coup d’état); Qualified damage against Union property, and deterioration of listed property. The total of denounced reaches 1,187.