Lira shows strength, Chamber presses for space even for PL – 03/06/2023 – Politics

Almost six months after taking office, President Lula (PT) has witnessed in recent days the most forceful demonstration of dissatisfaction by the Chamber of Deputies with the government and ran the risk of seeing much of the design he made for his ministries be erased.

The provisional measure that restructures the federal government was approved on Wednesday night (31), after the deputies threatened to defeat the MP in the face of widespread dissatisfaction with the political articulation of the Planalto.

In the opinion of parliamentarians interviewed by the report, this moment may have represented a watershed in the government’s relationship with the Chamber.

The next steps, according to deputies and members of the government, will define the relationship that Lula will have with the President of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The Planalto Palace knows that today it does not have enough votes to approve measures of interest without the influence of the mayor.

According to Lira and Lula himself, the Planalto has assured about 130 of 513 seats in the plenary – although the base with parties that make up the government is larger.

From now on, deputies assess, Lula will have to act to repair the rough edges in his political articulation and speed up the release of amendments and appointments to regional positions —the two main demands of congressmen— under penalty of suffering more defeats in the House.

In addition, a recurring request from parliamentarians is for prestige and for Lira to be more empowered.

This also means making room in the federal machine for other parties, such as the PP, Republicans and even the PL, who supported the re-election of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2022 – some in the first, others in the second echelon.

The hypothesis was suggested by Lira himself. In an interview with GloboNews on Thursday (1st), the parliamentarian stated that the federal government was willing to set up its parliamentary base by giving ministries to parties that supported him in the campaign, in addition to the MDB, PSD and União Brasil —and defended that it was logical that this alternative can be used to other subtitles in order to increase the base.

Deputies from the centrão and PT allies claim that they still consider changes in the ministry to be inevitable, even occasional, after the parliamentary recess in July.

The assessment is that parties that command portfolios are not delivering votes — and those that consider themselves independent and even opposition, on the other hand, are voting along with the government on some matters.

The situation of União Brasil, which has three ministries, is considered the most fragile. This is because Daniela Ribeiro (Tourism) asked the Justice to leave the caption, and Juscelino Filho (Communications) does not have the support of a large part of the bench.

Waldez Goés (National Integration), licensed from the PDT, was nominated by Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) and has his situation considered more comfortable by the government because he guarantees a vote in the Senate.

Members of the Executive consider, however, that no exchange should take place at first. The idea is to speed up the resolution of parliamentarians’ criticisms concerning budget execution and appointments.

Last week, on the one hand, Lira showed strength to the government by threatening a resounding defeat and stating that, from now on, he will have to “walk with his legs”.

On the other hand, Lula had to personally enter into the political articulation, telephoned the president of the Chamber, received the leader of União Brasil, Elmar Nascimento (União Brasil-BA), and began to prepare a diagnosis on the problems of the portfolios, making a fine-tooth comb and dealing directly with each minister.

According to reports, there has also been an offensive in recent days by ministers Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations) and Rui Costa (Casa Civil), dialoguing with the other heads of portfolios to insist that it is necessary to speed up the demands of parliamentarians.

Such as Sheet showed, Lira warned members of the Planalto that he will not guide projects of interest to the president until the deputies assess that the government has adjusted the political articulation and the relationship with the House.

The assessment of deputies is that Padilha does not have the instruments or the necessary support to enforce the agreements he seals with parliamentarians.

For example, it would not have the authority to convince other ministers to carry out what was agreed.

The Planalto had been receiving messages, for at least two weeks, that there were benches willing to overthrow the MP da Esplanada due to dissatisfaction with the government’s political articulation.

Still, the diagnosis was that she would pass. On the day that the analysis of the MP was scheduled, however, which would be last Tuesday (30), the scenario changed, and benches that were previously in favor, such as PP (49 deputies), União Brasil (59) and Republicans (41), changed their position.

Together, these parties have 149 deputies. The PL, Bolsonaro’s party, has another 99 deputies, a good part of which were against the provisional measure.

Lira, who previously was also willing to help approve the MP, became aloof. The fact that Minister Flávio Dino (Justice) had traveled to Alagoas the week before and had not called the mayor to announce the second edition of Pronasci (National Program for Public Security with Citizenship) weighed heavily, as well as criticisms that the senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) did to him.

In the end, the MP ended up approved in the Chamber, by 337 to 125, and the next day, in the Senate, by 51 to 19, avoiding the loss of validity.

The parliamentarians’ complaints also include difficulties in placing political nominees for government positions and the treatment given by ministers to congressmen, with difficulty in getting meetings.

Although Lira’s allies acted in line with him, base deputies assess that the government was wrong in not having faced the mayor more vehemently, betting that the House would never overthrow the MP. There was an assessment that this would negatively impact the image of the Legislature.

The fear of the PT’s allies is that, depending on what the government concedes, this will mean Lira’s excessive strengthening, which could leave the government always in his hands.