Lula faces domestic turmoil but prioritizes abroad – 05/31/2023 – Politics

The climate of government disarticulation in the Chamber of Deputies this Tuesday (30) reinforced a recurring complaint from allies about what they consider to be an error in President Lula’s (PT) priorities at the beginning of his term.

While his government suffered yet another defeat with the approval of the time frame project on the indigenous issue and had difficulty approving even the provisional measure that designed the new ministerial configuration, the president led a meeting with representatives of all the countries of South America, in Brasilia, an initiative of his in the search for a new model of regional integration.

Since taking office, Lula has traveled to the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, China, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Japan, in addition to having reserved part of his agenda for talks related to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The emphasis on diplomacy contrasts with the failure so far to build a solid support base in Congress.

For some allies, Lula should directly assume the leadership of political articulation in Congress, as a matter of priority, personally intervening to smooth out disputes, meet demands and sign pacts, at least until a consistent factual basis is formed.

Examples and complaints have been piling up.

The PT called at the last minute for the morning of this Wednesday (31) a meeting with the core of the government’s political articulation to discuss the defeats in the Legislative.

Lula was elected to his third term in an electorally polarized country and saw Congress formed by a large conservative majority —the left elected only about a quarter of the seats.

With that, the PT sought to form a coalition with center and right-wing parties such as the MDB, PSD and União Brasil, distributing nine ministries to these parties, in addition to ruling out launching a candidate against the re-election of the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP- AL), until last year one of the main allies of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The arrangement, however, has not resulted in a solid foundation. The government’s political articulation suffers a barrage of criticism, mainly in the Chamber, and sees the protagonism of the centrão, led by Lira, a group that today, in fact, has a base in Congress.

Depending on the interests of this group, more than 300 votes have been gathered both in favor and against the government.

The ministers of political articulation, Alexandre Padilha, from the Civil House, Rui Costa, and the leader of the government in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), have been bombarded by this group behind the scenes and, in some cases, also publicly. .

As happened at the beginning of the month, when Lira stated that the government’s main problem is political articulation, formed by ministers who hold several meetings, but take few effective decisions in the face of complex scenarios.

The main complaint has been in relation to disorganization, internal head-banging and the lack of fulfillment of promises of distribution and payment of amendments to parliamentarians, in addition to positions in the federal machine.

Lira pleads to resume managing the distribution of these amendments and positions, a task she carried out in the Bolsonaro administration.

Lula has so far edited, for example, 21 provisional measures, but after five months of government, none of them has yet been approved by Congress.

Six of them will expire because they were not approved within a maximum period of 120 days. A seventh, which raised the number of ministries from 23 to 37, could have the same fate if the government fails to approve it in the House and Senate by this Thursday (1st).

The fact would generate the unprecedented situation of a president not being able to enforce his ministerial configuration at the beginning of his term.

Provisional measures are the main instrument that the government has to legislate. A lack of agreement between Lira and the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), on the procedure, however, has practically made this mechanism unfeasible.

Until now, there has been no clear effort by Lula or the government to overcome this impasse between Lira and Pacheco.

The president of the Chamber also sponsors a regional rivalry with senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), Lula’s ally, which has resulted in side effects for the Planalto Palace.

On Twitter, the senator called Lira a deadbeat, accused him of embezzling public money and also of having beaten his ex-wife Julyenne Lins. The president of the Chamber sent a message to Planalto that he considered the declarations of the senator from Lula’s base inadmissible and, according to government supporters, threatened not to put the MP for the restructuring of ministries to a vote.

Another clear sign of the fragility of the governing base is the fact that, against their will, the Chamber and the Senate installed four CPIs, one mixed (made up of deputies and senators) and three in the Chamber. The four presidents of these committees are members of the centrão that supported Bolsonaro.

Lula has also seen part of the decrees in the area of ​​sanitation being overturned by the Chamber and is now trying to negotiate in the Senate, where he has a less uncomfortable situation.

The only relevant success of the government, the approval of the new fiscal framework, occurred only due to the support of the centrão and Lira’s command, which has taken over guidelines that the business community and the market have enjoyed.