Lula’s articulation slips and puts votes at risk – 03/10/2023 – Power

The government’s delay in unlocking the appointment of nominees from political parties to Executive positions has irritated allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Supporters claim that the difficulties in negotiating the positions could lead to a rebellion in Lula’s base in Congress. The first test should be the analysis of the proposal that reestablishes the so-called casting vote of CARF (Administrative Council of Tax Resources), seen as essential to increase revenue and balance the country’s public accounts.

The government has already received the list of strategic positions in which each party is interested, but few requests have been granted. Many second-tier functions have not had a holder since the beginning of the year, which, according to servants’ reports, hinders the progress of ongoing actions in the ministries.

There are even situations of names that have been chosen and are already dispatched to the ministries – but have not yet been named. This is the case of secretariats in the Ministries of Mines and Energy, Environment and Ports and Airports.

The Planalto Palace negotiations take place both with parties that are part of the allied base and with parliamentarians who are in opposition parties, but who are sympathetic to the government and can deliver important votes in Congress.

Podemos, for example, has a more right-wing bias and does not intend to publicly support the government, but should benefit from positions. The party is negotiating to choose the head of Geap, a health plan for federal civil servants.

The command of the body is highly disputed for having a millionaire budget and several positions in the superintendencies in the states.

The Republicans, in turn, supported former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in last year’s elections, but a wing of the party promises to vote in favor of government proposals in the Legislative if they have positions in the Executive.

The party puts pressure on to nominate the head of the FNDE’s (National Education Development Fund) Directorate for Articulation and Educational Projects. The billionaire fund linked to the Ministry of Education is also coveted by parties outside the center.

PV is one of the base’s most dissatisfied acronyms. The party is in the same federation as the PT, as well as the PC do B, and has the same number of deputies as the communists.

The treatment given to the two acronyms, however, is different. The PC do B featured the Minister of Science and Technology, Luciana Santos, and a secretary of the Ministry of Health, while the PV is outside the top echelon of the Esplanada.

The PV has an affiliate in the presidency of Iphan (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage). This is Leandro Grass, candidate for governor of the Federal District defeated in October.

The party’s leadership handed the Planalto Palace a list of ten positions of interest, with the exception that four of them would already be enough to contemplate the party.

In addition to a position on the board of the FNDE, the PV also wants to appoint a board at Itaipu Binacional and the command of ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), among other positions.

A member of the party has already been nominated for a position at the BNDES, but the acronym alleges that this designation was part of the personal quota of the new president of the state-owned bank, Aloizio Mercadante (PT).

The promises made to the acronym intensified after the dispute for the Board of Directors of the Chamber, when the deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS) was elected to occupy the second Secretary of the House after negotiation so that the PV did not dispute the same post.

Pressured by deputies and senators, members of the Planalto Palace have been divided in explaining the delay for the nominations to materialize. On the one hand, the Institutional Relations Secretariat, responsible for articulating the government, says that the appointments are taking time because of the curriculum analysis carried out by the Civil House.

On the other hand, the Civil House points to the delay of Institutional Relations in defining priorities for the occupation of these functions.

The assessment of the political class, however, is that part of the delay is part of the Planalto Palace’s strategy of waiting for the first important votes in Congress to release the nominations.

A palace adviser recalls that the base has not yet been submitted to a trial by fire in the Legislature so that the government can identify worthy allies of a space in the administration.

Criticisms of the political articulation in the negotiation for the nominations range from centrão parties and acronyms that supported Lula from the first round to members of the PT itself.

In addition, parties say that Lula’s changes in interlocutors for this type of negotiation also make articulations difficult. During the campaign, the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann (PT), led the conversations with the allied parties.

In government, this is in charge of Alexandre Padilha, minister of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations, who in conversations with allies has already said he is unaware of promises made by the president of his party during the electoral period.

The government, in turn, defends itself and says that the delay in appointments is also the fault of the base itself. Federal positions in the states, for example, were promised to state legislatures. According to government officials, parliamentarians are unable to reach an agreement and the lack of consensus names hinders the nominations.

In addition, there is resistance in centrão parties with Lula’s order to keep positions for parties that were Bolsonaro’s base, but change the nominees so as not to harm the presidential speech that it is necessary to “debolsonarize” the Executive.