Lira: Government must adapt to the new relationship between Powers – 05/24/2023 – Power

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said this Wednesday (24) that the approval of the basic text of the new fiscal framework is the result of a National Congress that is a protagonist and that the government needs to adapt to the new relationship between the Powers.

For Lira, the approval of the rule that replaces the spending ceiling should not be understood as a result of a consistent base of the government in the Chamber, but rather the understanding of party leaders that the proposal was important for the resumption of investments in Brazil and not represented exclusively the interests of the Lula (PT) administration.

“The conditions for forwarding these votes are extremely important, and we understand that these matters that are still under discussion will have a calm, transparent discussion, logically with a different bias, because matters of more interest to the government will need greater articulation from the government to win in plenary the still difficulty of not having a consistent and solid base”, said Lira in an interview with GloboNews.

Lira said that Congress has given “polite and clear” signals to the government that the “world of 2002 is not the world of 2023” —announcing that the way Lula governed his first two terms is different from the way people are governed today.

“Back then, there was no liability law, spending ceiling, regulatory agency, internet, independent Central Bank, tax amendment, there wasn’t a Congress with so much protagonism”, said Lira.

The approval of the basic text of the new fiscal framework on Tuesday (23), by 372 votes against 108, was built with the support of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad. According to Lira, the PT’s willingness to negotiate with party leaders should serve as an example for the rest of the government.

“It is important that the government understands that it has to participate in the discussion process as Minister Haddad participated, who had a very important, frank, calm and close participation in Congress, which helped a lot in the processing of this matter”, said the president of the Chamber.

The Alagoas deputy’s statement opposes Haddad’s performance to the articulations made by ministers Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) and Rui Costa (Civil House). The first has been criticized for talking a lot with parliamentarians and delivering little, while the second became a target, especially in the discussion about the sanitation decree, for not being sensitive to Parliament’s demands.

In Congress, the two were considered the main culprits for the government’s first defeat in the overthrow of the decree that changed the rules of the Sanitation Framework, at the beginning of the month.

“I cannot hold Minister A or B responsible, this is an internal function of the government, but the government as a whole needs to aim at fulfilling the agreements it makes with the Legislative, in prioritizing the space of parliamentarians with respect to the functions of each Power. Without this, it is very difficult for the government to be able to implement changes that the plenary understands as a specific interest of the government, and not of the country”, completed Lira in the interview.

To soften the relationship, Lira reinforced that he would not like to criticize, but make a “point for a collective effort so that the forces are balanced and the government can try its best to get its base”.

“[Formar a base do governo] it’s not my job. My function, as I have always said, will be to facilitate matters that are important for the growth and development of our country, and the Chamber has done this with great independence”, he declared.

During the interview, Lira also gave other signals to the government. In one of them, the president of the Chamber said that the progress of the joint commissions that analyze three provisional measures edited by Lula had a slow procedure and will be voted on without the plenary sessions of the two Houses having time to deepen the discussion of the matters.

He was referring to the MPs for Bolsa Família, Minha Casa, Minha Vida and the reorganization of the Esplanada dos Ministérios.

According to the parliamentarian, without an agreement between the Chamber and the Senate on how the MPs will be handled, the government will have to adapt.

“We did not reach an agreement on the provisional measures, which will force the good side of the thing: the government will have to give up this instrument to return to legislate by bill, even if it is with constitutional urgency”, he warned.

Lira also said that some areas of government need to strengthen their role in Congress to open dialogue. The example given by the President of the Chamber was that of the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva.

The environmentalist’s portfolio has been the target of dehydration in Congress. The rapporteur for the MP that reorganizes the Esplanade included in his opinion a series of changes that remove bodies from the Ministry of the Environment and transfer them to the ministries of Planning, Cities and Integration and Regional Development.

“The biggest changes concern the weakening [feito pelo governo Lula] of the Ministry of Agriculture, in a strengthening of the Ministry of the Environment, which is a ministry with very little political support within Congress —it is important to emphasize. You cannot live disconnected from the technique of politics, it does not work, there is this very serious problem in relation to this clash between Ibama and Petrobras regarding oil exploration on the coast of the North Region and going to the Northeast”, said Lira.

Marina Silva told Sheet on Tuesday that the changes intended by rapporteur Isnaldo Bulhões (AL), leader of the MDB in the Chamber, have at their core the destruction of the environmental policy promoted by the Lula government.

“They want to change the Esplanada provisional measure to implement the government [Jair] Bolsonaro in the Lula government,” he said.