Lula’s base fears lack of majority in the Chamber’s CCJ – 03/17/2023 – Power

Despite having won the presidency of the collegiate, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government will not have a majority in the CCJ (Commission on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship) of the Chamber of Deputies, the main one in the House.

Planalto still faces problems with the nominations of opposition names within parties considered independent, such as União Brasil —which, for Lula’s allied base, could create problems in moving forward with projects of interest to the government.

Of the 66 seats in the CCJ, 28 are for parties aligned with the government and 38 are for parties considered to be adversarial or independent.

In this configuration, independent parties that could support Executive projects, such as União Brasil and Podemos, indicated names that are openly in opposition, such as Rosângela Moro (União Brasil-SP) and Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR).

União Brasil, which nominated three ministers for the Esplanada, for example, will have 9 names on the commission —of these, at least 6 are in opposition to the Lula government.

This Wednesday (15), the 30 permanent committees were installed in the Chamber, after more than a month of negotiations. In addition to the CCJ, the PT was in charge of the Finance and Taxation, Human Rights and Labor commissions.

The scenario of the CCJ raised the alarm in part of the allied base of the government — all the projects that are processed in the House pass through it. The fear is that, without a majority in the commission, the Executive will find it difficult to move forward with legislative proposals.

The Planalto also signaled the fear of having to negotiate retail with parliamentarians, negotiating vote by vote, instead of having the institutional support of the benches in the Chamber and Senate, which increases the bargaining power of centrão parties.

One of the people who gave voice to fears was the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann (PR). For her, it is “necessary” for the government to talk to parties so that they “review these nominations”.

“The CCJ is strategic for the legislative process. Parties that are in government must be committed to governance,” he told the Sheet.

Leader of the PDT, André Figueiredo (CE) says that it is necessary to wait for the first votes for the government to assess whether it is necessary to ask for the replacement of committee members.

“I believe that the leaders themselves are aware that we need to have a majority in the CCJ, in Inspection and Control, in Finance and Taxation, in order to guarantee something that is essential to Brazil, which is governance.”

Other allies of Lula try to downplay the problem. They claim that the government will be in charge of the agenda, since the president will be federal deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP).

According to party leaders, Falcão will be able to negotiate the support of independent parliamentarians by offering the advancement of agendas considered important by the deputies.

Deputy leader of the government, Alencar Santana (PT-SP) says that this scenario is not a cause for concern. He says that clashes are natural for the government and that the base will work to overcome them.

“We have the presidency [da CCJ] and, therefore, control of the agenda in the first year, which is essential. Logically, the participation of the parties is proportional. There we will play in these conditions. Now opposition deputies have to be clear that President Lula’s projects have an elaborate public policy that aims to guarantee improvements to the Brazilian people, economy and so many other areas,” he said.

The Financial Inspection and Control Commission is another collegiate that generates apprehension among members of the government, since it has the power to summon all ministers of the Lula government to provide clarifications.

The collegiate has 22 chairs. Under proportionality rules, the division guarantees 10 seats for parliamentarians from grassroots parties and 12 for opposition and independent party deputies.

Parliamentarians claim that the opposition decided to focus its activities on the commission. In addition to the PL placing Bia Kicis (DF) to command the collegiate, even after efforts by grassroots parties to prevent this nomination, the party indicated a shock battalion for the other chairs, including Eduardo Bolsonaro (SP), Junio ​​Amaral ( MG) and Nikolas Ferreira (MG).

A Sheet Eduardo claims that the opposition will carry out “100% supervision of the ministers”. Nikolas, in turn, is articulating to leave the chair of the collegiate substitute to assume a titleholder. “The opposition will be the most brutal of all [na comissão]. The marking will be on top”, he says.