Lula denies that distribution of amendments influenced deputies’ votes

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) denied, this Tuesday morning (11), that the distribution of more than R$ 8.5 billion in amendments had influenced the approval of important government projects in the Chamber of Deputies last week. , such as the tax reform and the return of the “casting vote” to the Administrative Board of Tax Appeals (Carf).

The statement that it does not adopt a policy of “it is given that you receive” was given during the weekly live broadcast on the internet, which had peaks of 4,900 people watching.

According to the president, the approval of the projects was due to the “great persistence” of Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, and government leaders in the Chamber to negotiate the “governability” of the country. A negotiation that, he says, is not with the “centrão”, which “is not a political party”, but with parties such as PSB, PSD, União Brasil, PP, among others.

“The party that wins the elections needs to build a majority to govern, to approve the things that the government considers important for the country. It has to have a majority,” he said.

Last week, Minister Alexandre Padilha, of Institutional Relations, also denied that the release of the amendments (R$ 5.3 billion in just one day) had influenced the approval of the tax reform project. “It’s in line with what the government has planned for the first semester in Congress,” he said.

Lula says that the ideal would be not to need to negotiate, “but that’s not the case”. “The ideal would be for the party to elect everyone”, he said, exemplifying that even with a large absolute majority, not even Ulisses Guimarães in the Constituent Assembly or José Sarney in the government managed to approve everything they wanted without much negotiation.

This negotiation, he said, takes place by accepting ideas, that the congressman “may have a better idea of ​​what the government had” when he sent a certain bill to Congress. “They [parlamentares]
they have a power of attorney from the people to vote”, said Lula, emphasizing that the negotiation with the congressmen also depends a lot on how the chosen rapporteur will articulate.

“The policy will be facilitated or not according to the rapporteur. And Aguinaldo [Ribeiro-PP/PB, relator da reforma tributária na
Câmara] He had an exemplary behavior, he took it seriously,” said Lula.

The president says that, in addition to the rapporteur having managed to articulate improvements to the text among the deputies, he also acted directly on Haddad’s behalf to talk to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to negotiate approval in the house. And that he will do the same with Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) in the Senate, who will have a meeting with Haddad and Simone Tebet, Minister of Planning, later this Tuesday (11), at 11 am.

“It was an important week and I hope the Senate repeats the House vote. I hope to reach the end of the year with a new tax policy that we no longer need to discuss”, he added.

In addition to talking about the approval of the tax reform and the “quality vote” in the Chamber, Lula also commented on the live on the resumption of the council that will define the country’s new industrial policy, last week; the energy transition with Brazil’s potential gains from exploiting the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest; holding a tender for hiring agents for Ibama; what to do to clear the INSS queue; among other matters.