Lula meets with Lira after deputy speaks questioning base – 03/09/2023 – Politics

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) met this Thursday night (9) with the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). The meeting took place three days after the deputy said that the PT candidate does not have votes in Congress to approve economic reforms.

The dinner was scheduled at the last minute, and took place outside the agenda of the authorities at the home of Minister Paulo Pimenta (Secom), in Lago Norte, a noble meeting in Brasília.

In addition to Pimenta, ministers Rui Costa (Casa Civil) and Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations) also participated. The leader of the government in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), also attended.

The event started around 8 pm. Shortly before 11 pm Lula, Guimarães and Padilha left the venue separately.

Last Monday (6), Lira told businessmen in São Paulo that Lula needs time to stabilize internally, organize a parliamentary base and find a path to pursue his agendas in the economic area in Congress. He participated in a meeting with the political and social council of the Commercial Association of São Paulo.

The president of the Chamber also said that the PT was democratically elected, but with a minimal margin of votes, and that the government does not have support in the Legislative or to approve laws by simple majority, much less to advance in constitutional matters, as is the case of tax reform.

“We have a government that was elected with a minimal margin of votes and that needs to understand that we have an independent Central Bank, regulatory agencies, the State-Owned Companies Law and a Congress with broader attributions,” said Lira, indicating that Lula will have difficulty reviewing any of these themes.

So far, the PT has the support of 223 parliamentarians who belong to allied parties, less than half of the total number of deputies in the House. 102 deputies belong to the opposition and 188 declare themselves independent, among them members of the União Brasil—which nominated three names for Lula’s cabinet.

With that, government members avoid projecting on the size of the support base they will have in the National Congress and work to attract subtitles and parliamentarians.

Such as Sheet showed, the assembly of the base involves negotiation with a group of parliamentarians from parties that are not formally allied, mainly from the centrão. According to reports, there is a potential pro-PT parallel group of around 70 deputies and 10 senators.

Earlier this Thursday, the leader of the government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede), told journalists that he agrees with Lira’s statement that the federal Executive does not yet have a consolidated base.

“We don’t have a constitutional number in the Chamber. We have it in the Senate, but in the Chamber we still don’t have a constitutional number. We want to reach the constitutional number,” he said.

“In the Senate, there was a baseline test. We consolidated our base of 49, I think we can reach 55 senators. In the Chamber, no. There was a great agreement around President Lira. So now we have to take the step ahead, consolidate base in the Chamber”, he said.