Lula makes offensive with the opposition to try to expand his base in Congress

The organizers of the Planalto Palace began a new offensive with deputies and senators from opposition parties in order to form a base for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the National Congress. In addition to releasing funds and positions for parties such as PSD, MDB and União Brasil, parliamentarians from the PL, PP and Republicans are also being sought by the Ministry of Institutional Relations. In the strategy, parliamentarians from opposition parties in the Northeast are the main targets of Lula’s offensive

The expectation of the Planalto Palace is to try to attract about 75 deputies and senators from these parties, who are officially in opposition to the government. Together, PL, PP and Republicans add up to 209 deputies and senators, and, according to projections by Lula’s allies, the negotiations could take at least 35% of these parliamentarians to the governing base.

Negotiations are being conducted by ministers Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) and Rui Costa (Civil Staff). In addition, the leaders of the government in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), and of the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), also participate in the conversations.

The strategy with the opposition parties was already being designed by the government, but it was accelerated this week after the Planalto suffered some defeats in the Chamber, such as the postponement of the vote on the Fake News bill (PL 2.630/2020) and the overthrow excerpts from the sanitation decree.

In the latter case, the overthrow of the decree was seen as a message about the dissatisfaction of the deputies with the flow of release of amendments and appointments of political appointees to positions in the Executive.

“I would say that the amendments were not committed within the deadline and in the expectation that the parliamentarians had, but things are being oiled. Meetings are being held, next week new meetings will also be held to align this rhythm of the relationship with Congress in the release of amendments, in the appointment of various ministries”, acknowledged Rui Costa in an interview with Globo News this Wednesday (10).

With the agreement with the deputies of these parties, the government believes that it should get a base of at least 308 votes in the Chamber, which would be enough to approve a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC), for example. In addition, the PT believe that the negotiations widen the margin of votes in the Senate, where the government believes it has a more consistent support base.

Lula’s offensive with the opposition targets parliamentarians from the Northeast

Parliamentarians from opposition parties in the Northeast are the main targets of Lula’s offensive. Privately, Planalto organizers admit that these deputies and senators have more sympathy with the government due to Lula’s popularity in the region’s states.

This week, for example, parliamentarians from the PL, PP and Republicans in the Northeast were among those contemplated in the first wave of release of amendments by the government. Altogether, these parties received almost R$ 140 million of the R$ 700 million that were released only last Tuesday (9).

In the case of the Republicans, which received R$59.3 million, Deputy Aluísio Mendes (MA), had R$13.8 million in released amendments. Deputy Wilson Santiago (PB) received BRL 5.7 million.

The PP, of the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), was contemplated with 57.6 million in amendments, and deputy Marx Beltrão (AL) received R$ 8.9 million. The deputies, Claudio Cajado and M. Negromonte Jr., both from Bahia, received R$ 7.2 million and R$ 7.1 million, respectively.

The PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), received just over R$ 20.5 million from the amendments released this Tuesday. The flow of funds continued in the following days, with more than R$434 million committed to parliamentary amendments between Wednesday and Thursday.

Commitment is the first stage of public expenditure execution. With it, the government formalizes that it will reserve a portion of the money available in the Budget for that expense. It works as a guarantee from the authority that the payment will be made.

The expectation of parliamentarians is that the release will be expanded in the coming weeks from the indications for discretionary amendments. They will come from the Ministries of Health, the Company for the Development of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys (Codevasf) and the National Education Development Fund (FNDE) through party leaders.

Negotiations run outside the guidelines of the opposition party summits

Publicly, the leaders of parties such as the PL, PP and Republicans maintain the position that they will oppose the Lula government. Despite this, in the case of the PL, for example, leaders of former President Bolsonaro’s party privately admit that the membership of the government base is around 35 of the party’s 99 deputies.

In the PP, whose president is the senator and former minister of the Bolsonaro government, Ciro Nogueira (PI), at least 25 congressmen from the bench of 42 deputies would be willing to negotiate with the Planalto. In Republicans, this membership would be around 20 of the 41 members of the bench in the Chamber of Deputies.

Despite having been the main beneficiary among the opposition parties in this first wave of release of amendments, the president of the Republicans, deputy Marcos Pereira (SP), has defended that the party will not be the base of the government. Recently, in a video published on the acronym’s networks, Pereira admitted that it is “legitimate for one deputy or another to approach the government for local interests”.

“The Republicans will not be the base of the Lula government until the end of the government. The Republicans will remain independent until December 31, 2026, which is when President Lula’s government ends. Our political manifesto is clear: we are a conservative party and liberal in the economy. It is obvious that we are not going to act with an opposition to Brazil, we are not an opposition to Brazil”, he added.