‘I’m not going to go down to that level’, says Padilha after Lira’s attacks – 04/12/2024 – Power

The Chief Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, stated this Friday (12) that he would not sink to the level of accusations made by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and that his focus is to continue working with the Congress to approve agendas of interest to the country.

“I’m not going to sink to that level,” he said, in an interview before an event in Rio de Janeiro, adding that his mother taught him that “when one doesn’t want to, two don’t fight.”

Padilha suffered attacks from Lira this Thursday (12), in response to reports about the defeat in the vote that maintained the arrest of federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão (no party-RJ), suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL- RJ).

Lira accused Padilha of leaking the theory that he had left the episode weakened and called him “disaffected” and “incompetent”. “There is no partisanship, I made it very clear that yesterday the vote was individual, each deputy is responsible for the vote they gave. It has nothing to do with it.”

Asked to comment on the episode this Friday, Padilha quoted lines from rapper Emicida: “grudge and tumor, it poisons the root, and the audience wants to be happy.” “Brazil wants to be happy”, he added.

On Thursday, the chief minister of the Institutional Relations Secretariat used his social networks to refute the criticism, although without mentioning Lira or even the episode. Padilha published a video in which he is praised by Lula, who says that he has the “thorniest position in the government”.

“Having heard this yesterday, publicly, from the greatest political leader in the history of Brazil, is always an honor for the entire team at the Ministry of Institutional Relations”, wrote the minister, who came to Rio de Janeiro to participate in an event about the electricity sector Brazilian.

Since the end of last year, Lira has criticized the performance of Padilha, the Executive’s main coordinator in the National Congress. He even took these complaints to Lula (PT) himself and indicated that, without a change of minister, the government’s agenda in the Chamber would not move forward.

Since then, the dialogue between the two has been broken — Lira now deals directly with the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, after an agreement signed with the president.

In February, in a sign of pacification, Lira and leaders of the Chamber were received by the president at Palácio da Alvorada. The meeting was attended by Padilha. However, the relationship remained tense between the two.