Liberal bench is divided between flexibility and opposition to Lula

The liberal bench in Congress was divided between those who remain in opposition to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and those who are more flexible and willing to have a broad and plural dialogue to approve proposals that reconcile liberal thought and the work of reduce the Brazil Cost and encourage entrepreneurship.

In January, the climate in Congress was more pessimistic regarding the hypothesis of advancing privatization agendas, improvements in the business environment and gains in competitiveness during the four years of the Lula government. Today, the approval of proposals related to these themes is still unlikely, but a portion of the liberal group of the Legislative acted to unlock at least part of a possible agenda.

The Mixed Parliamentary Front for Competitive Brazil launched its legislative agenda in early April with 37 proposals, a number even greater than the 30 initial projects presented at the launch of the thematic bench in the last legislature. Some adjustments in the agenda are noticeable in the midst of the interests of the current federal government.

In 2021, the front that fights to reduce the Brazil Cost, estimated at BRL 1.5 trillion a year, defended the approval of Bill (PL) 591/2021, which deals with the privatization of the Post Office. The matter was approved in the House and is still in the Senate, awaiting the appointment of a rapporteur, and is not included in the agenda of 37 priority guidelines released this month.

However, it still includes guidelines related to improving the business environment, such as the Complementary Law Project (PLP) 33/2020, the well-known “legal framework of re-entrepreneurship”, which deals with judicial and extrajudicial recovery of micro and small companies (MSEs) , and also defends the approval of PLPs 17/2022 and 125/2022, which deal with a new taxpayer defense code.

The parliamentary front also did not fail to propose guidelines on labor modernization, such as the maintenance of PL 1231/15, among its priorities. The wording includes mechanisms to facilitate the hiring of people with disabilities in the private sector and provides for compensation measures to be adopted when the minimum quota cannot be reached.

The bench also defends PLs 5670/19 and 1363/21, which include in the CLT the regulation of multifunctional work and revises the Social Security benefit plan, respectively.

“Deideologization” is the bet to reduce the Brazil Cost, says deputy

The advance of liberal thought with guidelines that encourage the reduction of the Brazil Cost is possible as a result of the “de-ideologization” preached by federal deputy Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP). “The more you get into the content of the proposals, the more you go forward”, highlighted the parliamentarian to the People’s Gazette. “Every time you enter into the discussion of merit and remove the adjectives and ideologization, there is an environment to advance”, she adds.

President of the Parliamentary Front for Competitive Brazil, Jardim moves well between the different political spectrums and admits that his choice to chair the bench is due to his ability to dialogue with the different poles. “I don’t have the slightest doubt. A characteristic of mine is this ability to dialogue. I think I’m respected by both extremes, because I’ve never been a person of denouncements, I’ve always built. front would need”, commented.

In his speech at the launch of the new board and the legislative agenda, Jardim highlighted that “politics is not non-partisan, and much less electoral”, and made an appeal for “change” and the defense of “establishing a new climate” with society in the midst of the current Lula government. “The previous period of extreme radicalization and accentuated polarization was poor, with an abundance of adjectives and a lack of nouns. It is time to seek not gladiators, but builders. It is time to seek not to exalt differences, but to establish convergences”, he opined.

The deputy defended a “national development project” for the country, criticized the “radicalized polarization” and asked for “the construction of an agenda for a new moment”. “The people who are here are builders and, therefore, I vibrate and feel together with you for a beautiful crusade, for a competitive Brazil that resumes its economic development”, he highlighted.

Jardim reported PL 312/15, which deals with payment for environmental services, transformed into Law No. 14,119/2021; and authored PL 5191/20, which instituted the Investment Funds for the Agricultural Sector (Fiagros), Law 14130/21. In both cases, even despite divergences from sectors of the left, the agendas were not hindered.

Composition with the left is part of the strategy among liberals

The composition between parliamentarians from the left, from the center and from the right was a decision adopted by the Parliamentary Front for Brasil Competitivo as a strategy to defend the union and the “de-ideologization” preached by Arnaldo Jardim. While the last board was made up of more center-right and right-wing deputies, the new one is more multi-party.

The vice-president of the front Senate is Senator Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE). The vice president of the Chamber is deputy Soraya Santos (PL-RJ). The general secretary is Deputy Julio Lopes (PP-RJ). Among the directors are senators Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) and Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), and deputies Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), Mendonça Filho (União Brasil-PE), Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP), Lucas Ramos (PSB-PE), as well as deputies from the Republicans, PSDB, Citizenship, MDB and PSD, such as Marco Bertaiolli (PSD-SP).

Bertaiolli presides over the Entrepreneurship Parliamentary Front, which also adopted a similar composition on its board. Senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC) takes care of political coordination in the Senate, deputy Sidney Leite (PSD-AM) is responsible for political coordination in the Chamber, deputies Joaquim Passarinho (PL-PA) and Danilo Forte (União Brasil-CE ) are the 1st and 2nd vice-presidents, and deputies Vitor Lippi (PSDB-SP) and Zé Neto (PT-BA) are secretaries. There are also directors of Avante, PL and Citizenship, like Arnaldo Jardim himself.

Jardim says that there is a good synergy between the Brasil Competitivo and Entrepreneurship parliamentary fronts, which, not infrequently, act together in defense of convergent agendas, such as PL 4188/21, which deals with the Marco de Garantias. The proposal can lower the value of the monthly installment of a loan by up to 37%, compared to an unsecured operation.

“We are going to establish priority scales, monitor all [os projetos da agenda legislativa] and concentrate one by one. Our priority now is the Marco das Garantias in the Senate and the infrastructure debentures [PL 2646/20]. In the Chamber, PL 414/21, the modernization of the electricity sector, is the priority. These are our three immediate focuses, in addition to the banner of tax reform”, highlights Jardim.

The front of Brasil Competitivo supports the conduct of the labor reform debates led by the work group led by Deputy Reginaldo Lopes, from the PT, and celebrated the decision of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to ask for urgency in the vote on the PL of the Marco das Garantias . The theme was highlighted as an extremely important initiative by the Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce and vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), on the night of presentation of the bench’s legislative agenda.

The relationship with Alckmin, by the way, was strategically conducted on the front of Brasil Competitivo last year, when it launched a document defending 12 commitments for the country. The caucus toured the country and took the proposal to several candidates for local governments, including presidential candidates. For Lula’s campaign, it was Alckmin who received the document and sat down with the bench.

What does the portion of the liberal bench that takes a stand against the opposition say

Unlike other parliamentary fronts that defend the agenda of the “liberal bench” and are flexible to advance their agendas, the Parliamentary Front for the Free Market still positions itself more in opposition and without members from the left. Even among the 187 signatories, there are only five deputies from leftist parties: Bandeira de Mello (PSB-RJ), Florentino Neto (PT-PI), Márcio Honaiser (PDT-MA), Marcos Tavares (PDT-RJ) and Professora Goreth (PDT-AP).

The signature of a deputy or senator does not suggest that he will have an active participation in the parliamentary front, but the low participation of deputies from the left suggests a rejection of the agenda defended by the group. In the Parliamentary Front for Entrepreneurship, for example, there are 27 signatories.

The current president of the front that defends the free market is deputy Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS), 1st deputy leader of the opposition in the Chamber, who does not plan to give up the defended agenda. “We are going to continue working as we did during the last term, we have a very clear agenda, which is the agenda of reforms, the agenda of reducing the Brazil Cost, of reducing bureaucracy, and this continues, regardless of the government”, he points out to People’s Gazette.

Van Hattem foresees more difficulties in approving the agendas in the midst of the current Lula government, but expresses his understanding that the liberals who act and feel represented by the front do not abdicate the posture maintained since the last legislature. “It is clear that we are going to have more difficulties now, because those who are liberal are, by nature, opposed to a statist and socialist government. So, we have a greater challenge now, which obviously also makes us work even harder for the agendas that we believe, so that they are published and, in the worst case scenario, there is no setback”, he says.