Lula government is on track to generate new cases of corruption

Former judge and former minister Sérgio Moro (União Brasil), who currently occupies the chair of senator for Paraná, sees that the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is repeating “the same thing that it did in the past” and is heading towards generating new cases of corruption. The statement was given in an interview with Folha de São Paulo published this Thursday (2).

According to the senator, Lula returned to allotting public positions in the direct administration and in state-owned companies, as he did in his two previous terms, and that the corruption crises “by the way, are predictable”. The former judge says that the president has been increasing the government’s bureaucratic structure and that this will lead to “relaxation of controls”.

The speeches were made in reference to the return of the discussion of the bill that provides for the arrest in second instance, which Moro managed to unarchive and which he intends to put up for discussion when “the best political moment” arises.

“It is a question of conditions. The conditions are present or absent”, he questioned, citing the relaxation of the Law on State-Owned Companies due to the nominations of Aloizio Mercadante for the presidency of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and Jean Paul Prates for that of Petrobras.

According to him, the government “is making a contrary movement, because it wants to distribute positions in state-owned companies to gain political support. This often ends up neglecting the technical aspect. So you create the conditions for the cases of corruption to return”.

Moro recognizes that it is important to have a core of political positions in the federal administration, but restricted to the position of ministers. In the rest of the structure, “the more technical profile, the better”.

“What we see in the news is that the delay in appointing the Highway Police superintendents stems from these political arrangements. I don’t know if it’s true, but starting to allocate the positions of superintendents of police bodies is a model that doesn’t work”, he said recalling that, when he held the position of Minister of Justice, he guided the superintendents of the Federal Police and Federal Highway Police that indicated professionals with a technical profile.

Crisis with Bolsonaro and support in the presidential election

Sérgio Moro held the position of Minister of Justice in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) between 2019 and 2020, and left the government alleging alleged interference by the former president in the Federal Police. However, he reconnected with him in the election campaign last year, when he was elected senator.

For the former minister, this rapprochement was only for “support for Bolsonaro in the second round [da eleição] because of the opposition to Lula. At no point did I retract what I said.”

Moro says that, nowadays, he has no close relationship with the former president and has not even returned to be part of his political group. He also emphasized that he was elected senator without the support of the former president, only with his “own flags”. These flags, he says, are aimed at fighting corruption and promoting agribusiness.

“The main concern is linked to the misguided speech of the federal government. Farmers were called fascists by the president. I don’t feel like I’m a representative of agro itself, but I will defend the interests of agro because they coincide with the interests of the country”, he added.