Government wants to use the January 8 CPMI to investigate the opposition

Members of the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and leaders of the governing base have been defending behind the scenes that the Planalto Palace will use the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) of January 8th to wear down the opposition. The initial assessment is that the CPMI may pave the way for, for example, investigating parliamentarians who allegedly encouraged acts of vandalism against the buildings of the Three Powers.

In this strategy, the government supporters are mobilized in order to guarantee the majority of CPMI seats, in addition to posts such as the presidency and the collegiate’s rapporteur. On April 26, for example, the leader of the government in the National Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), maneuvered within the Senate in order to guarantee one more seat for base allies in the collegiate.

Until the beginning of last week, Randolfe was the only senator of the Network, part of the block formed by MDB, PSD and União Brasil. Shortly before the reading of the commission’s installation request, the parliamentarian switched to the group led by the PT. The exchange represented a decrease in the number of seats that the opposition would have in the CPMI.

In this strategy, the government estimates that it will have at least 11 of the 16 vacancies destined for senators in the CPMI. The Vanguarda (Novo and PL) and Aliança (PP and Republicans) blocks will have two vacancies each. The minority must also indicate a fifth senator, who, according to the initial agreement, will belong to the PP. The maneuver is seen as crucial for government supporters to be able to dictate the course of investigations.

“The idea is to separate some cadres to be exclusively in this function of the CPMI. It was a shot in the foot for their narrative. [da oposição] on the social networks. Anderson Torres is the link with former president Jair Bolsonaro”, highlighted the deputy leader of the government in Congress, deputy Lindbergh Farias (PT-RJ).

The parliamentarian assesses that the former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Public Security of the DF will be one of the names summoned to testify in the collegiate.

Opposition parliamentarians may become targets of CPMI investigation

With most of the names in the composition of the commission, members of the base defend that the investigations target the parliamentarians who have encouraged the acts of vandalism on January 8th. PT leaders admit that the watchword is not to spare any opponent who, in some way, supported the attack on the Powers.

“We are looking forward to the CPMI. We are going to prove that Anderson Torres was the link between the coup plotters and Bolsonaro. The CPMI will make this clear and further compromise other parliamentarians close to Bolsonaro”, evaluated Farias.

In this strategy, the base of the Lula government considers, for example, going to court to have Deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE) not be a member of the CPMI. Fernandes is the author of the request for the creation of the commission and should join the opposition bench in the investigations.

The imbroglio is related to the fact that the deputy for Ceará is being investigated by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on suspicion of involvement in coup acts. On April 26, after a meeting with the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said that the government will not accept “criminals” as investigators at the CPMI.

“We will not tolerate agents who are the subject of investigations, wherever they are, as members of the CPI. Because it’s paradoxical. […] How can you put the criminal to be the investigator? It is not a government opposition, it is a common sense opposition. It does not place itself to investigate, to have access to investigations, those who are suspected of the crime, ”he said.

In addition to Fernandes, government allies intend to target other deputies investigated by the STF, such as Clarissa Tércio (PP-PE) and Silvia Waiãpi (PL-AP). Other deputies such as Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Carla Zambelli (PL-SP) and Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES) are other names mentioned by the government supporters.

According to Randolfe, one of the first actions of the collegiate will be to ask for the sharing of information from investigations already under way at the Supreme Court. “One of the first agendas will be with Alexandre de Moraes to ask for the investigations to be shared, to know how far they are going”, said the senator at the Planalto Palace.

Also according to the government leader, the main strategy will be to try to reach the financiers and mentors of the acts of January 8th and identify political agents who have participated in some way.

“Understanding January 8 not as an isolated act, a ray of sunshine, but as a process that began with the election of President Lula in October 2022, which had preparatory stages. The 8th of January was the conclusion of a coup attempt. This is the tone we will set at the CPI”, he added.

To subsidize the allies, the Lula government intends to create a technical group, with the participation of ministries’ employees, to support the congressmen who will integrate the collegiate.

Change in strategy increased the government’s interest in setting up the CPMI

Until then resistant to the installation of the CMPI, the government changed its tone after General Gonçalves Dias resigned after the release of the images of January 8th. The videos show that the former chief minister and other members of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) were inside the Planalto Palace and did not act to contain the vandals who invaded and destroyed the Executive headquarters.

For Planalto allies, “the narrative that the government was lenient or even that it would have planned acts to victimize President Lula does not stand still and there is plenty of evidence and factual proof of what happened”. In addition, the initial assessment is that the investigations may result in an institutional “cleaning” in Congress.

“Nobody plays with democracy. If Congress wants to install the CPMI, we are ready to help, even to investigate. Since they want to. We have always said: CPMI is an instrument of the opposition. It is legitimate for the opposition to ask for CPMI. Whoever governs cannot lose ”, said the leader of the government in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE).

Opposition Strategies

On the other hand, opposition parliamentarians also define the strategies for the CPMI. Matter of People’s Gazette showed that, initially, the main concern is to avoid losing a seat to the governing base and then to close the names that will compose the parliamentary commission of inquiry.

In addition, even in isolation, right-wing names claim that they want to try to place the name of former Abin director and now federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ) for the position of chairman or rapporteur of the commission.

The initial targets of the CPMI opposition are the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino; and the former chief minister of the Institutional Security Office, General Gonçalves Dias. The pressure on the two is due to suspicions that they were warned by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) about the possibility of violent actions in the acts of January 8, two days before the protest that culminated in the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers. The alerts are in confidential documents obtained by the newspaper. Newspaper and which had some excerpts published on March 28.

Even so, the difficulty will be the approval of applications, since it will be necessary to obtain a majority of votes in the sessions.

The parliamentarians are also studying calling a group of lawyers and technicians to subsidize requests for breach of secrecy, preparation of expert reports and analysis of documents and data that are collected in the investigation.