Lula’s defeat in the Chamber exposed the government’s disarticulation – 05/22/2023 – Power

The defeat of the government in the sanitation decree in the Chamber of Deputies, in early May, evidenced a division in the Planalto Palace between the ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT), and of the SRI (Secretary of Institutional Relations), Alexandre Padilha (PT).

The assessment of government officials is that the defeat exposed, on the one hand, Costa’s lack of skill; on the other hand, Padilha’s fragility within the government itself to enforce the strategies of political articulation in Congress.

The criticism of the Civil House occurs because the text vetoed by the deputies is seen by palace advisors as an almost personal project by Costa, who was the one who managed the proposal – but without agreeing with parliamentarians before.

Behind the scenes, governing parliamentarians and palace advisers claim that they announced in advance that the overthrow of government changes via decree was a risk in the Legislative.

However, there is also the reading that the Institutional Relations portfolio should have emphasized more emphatically that the decrees would pose risks to the Planalto and, therefore, convinced President Lula (PT) not to sign them.

The extended score against the government also became an argument against Padilha’s actions: there were 295 votes against maintaining the decree and 136 in favor.

Wanted, Rui Costa and Alexandre Padilha did not manifest themselves.

The assessment of congressional leaders is that the result of the vote made clear the size of the governing group in the Chamber when the PT does not have the help of centrão parties, who act under the leadership of the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP- AL).

The head of the political articulation, in the following days, sought to minimize the defeat and stated that what matters most to the government is a set of victories in more important matters.

“It is very rare for a team to be champion undefeated. In a championship you lose, you draw. To be champion, you cannot lose the final”, Padilha told journalists at the Planalto Palace. Costa, in turn, admitted an error, but attributed the defeat to the lack of meetings.

“I think we have to recognize our mistake. I had asked two or three times that we held a meeting with leaders in advance to present the decree. allowed disinformation to take hold”, said the Minister of the Civil House, in an interview with GloboNews.

It was the first time that Rui Costa took on part of the burden of the government’s biggest defeat in the first five months of his administration.

Now, the Planalto Palace is trying to reverse the overthrow of the decrees in the Senate.

The Executive even evaluated a plan B, such as the presentation of a bill or provisional measure. But Congress itself has already signaled that it would reject a provisional measure – a modality with immediate effect, but which requires later approval from parliamentarians to remain valid.

In an unusual move, Costa took over the political articulation of sanitation in the Senate. Interlocutors in the Planalto deny that the head of the Civil House has been abandoned on the issue of the Sanitation Framework, but, on the other hand, point out that it was clear that he should be the main defender of the proposal.

He recently went to the Senate to try to clarify points with bench leaders. In addition, he articulated the participation of Minister Jader Filho (Cities) in hearings on the subject in that legislative House.

An influential leader in the Senate claims that the minister did not signal at the meeting that the government could withdraw from the proposal for a decree and replace it with the submission of a bill, despite having been urged by the senators to do so.

The representatives of the benches also made it clear to the minister that the source of irritation in Congress was with the way the changes in the Sanitation Framework were made, by means of a decree.

The current priority of the Planalto Palace, however, is not the changes in the sanitation law, but ensuring a broad victory in the fiscal framework, new rules to replace the spending ceiling. The urgency of the project was approved by 367 votes to 102 in the Chamber of Deputies.

Next week, Congress must analyze the merits of the proposal. The expectation in the Executive is that a victory on this issue will improve the climate of the Planalto with the Legislative. Deputies from the center have already made it clear behind the scenes, however, that the proposal should have massive support from parliamentarians because it involves an important debate for the economy and because the text has a bias that pleases the market and private initiative.

If the Executive does not release the appointment of nominees for the deputies in positions in the states and in the second echelon of Brasília, other defeats should occur, according to leaders of the Parliament.

The congressmen also demand from the Planalto the celerity in the release of parliamentary amendments.

The political articulation has been the target of criticism for weeks. The overthrow of the sanitation decree only exposed an irritation that comes from the beginning of the year.

In early May, Lira stated that the main problem of the Lula government is political articulation. For him, ministers hold several meetings, but make few decisions in the face of complex scenarios.

“The Lula government has some facilities for articulation, but, at the same time, this is the government’s biggest problem. It meets, meets, meets and does not decide,” he said.

Lira also stated that the Lula government needs to understand that the Executive’s relationship with the other Powers changed from 2002 to 2023, with laws and structures that “modified the command of the country”; and that the government needs to “mould” itself to the new moment of Brazilian democracy.