Lula’s government boosted promises to re-elect Pacheco – 02/01/2023 – Politics

Members of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government entered the field and intensified efforts to ensure the election of Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD) as President of the Senate on the eve of the vote this Wednesday (1st).

On Tuesday (31), senators warned the government about the possibility of growth of Rogério Marinho (PL), former minister of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) who was Pacheco’s opponent.

Faced with this scenario, the Planalto Palace called on leaders of parties such as PSD and União Brasil to assure them that promises to deliver positions will be fulfilled. There are requests for positions in public companies, such as Geap (Public Servant Assistance Foundation).

Government ministers were also asked to act in search of votes to defeat Marinho.

Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro was on Wednesday afternoon at the inauguration of new senators, joining a group of former ministers from the last administration who showed support for Marinho’s candidacy.

In the beginning of the afternoon, the prediction of government supporters was that Pacheco would have 44 to 52 votes. The president of the Senate was re-elected for another two years in office by 49 votes, against 32 for his opponent.

The result of the election in the House represents a second defeat for Bolsonarism and gives another demonstration of Lula’s strength a month after the beginning of his term.

Shortly after the victory, Marinho pointed out government interference in the election result. The Minister of the Institutional Relations Secretariat, Alexandre Padilha, rejected that this had happened.

“This government has not taken any measure of interference in the electoral process, either in the Senate or in the Chamber,” he said.

“The government did not interfere at all in the electoral process either in the Senate or in the Chamber because it is not President Lula’s practice to want to intervene in the National Congress”, he continued.

Despite the victory, Pacheco’s allies were afraid that Marinho would register a more expressive vote.

One of the problems pointed out by people close to Marinho was that Pacheco would have “allotted” the Senate even before being elected, promising the command of the main commissions only to political allies and leaving out other acronyms with representativeness.

The President of the Senate relied on the strong performance of Lula’s PT, former allies of the MDB and Senator Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), who was one of the main guarantors of the election.

Alcolumbre is pledged to the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission), which he already chairs and is the most important in the House. Senator Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE) is promised the first secretary.

The negotiation to re-elect Pacheco also involved spaces on the Board of Directors. The president of the Senate wanted to keep his main allies in positions of power — such as Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB) in the vice-presidency. But he was waiting for the score to define the fate of two secretariats that are now in the hands of the PL and the Progressistas.

Even having the second largest bench in the Senate, the PL runs the risk of running out of important spaces in the House due to the formation of blocks. The former president’s party has joined the PP and the Republicans —which have 22 senators—, but the government articulates two even larger blocs.

Alcolumbre’s influence and space also became a reason for complaints in several parties, including União Brasil. In the assembly of the government, the center party had three ministries. Two of them were nominated by the senator: the Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), and of Integration, Waldez Góes (PDT).

Although he belongs to the PDT and is only on leave from the party, former governor of Amapá Waldez Góes is close to Alcolumbre — the senator also articulated the appointment of the ally with governors of the Amazon region.

Shortly after the nominations, leaders and members of União Brasil complained that the PT team conducted the process in a haphazard way and ended up contemplating only Alcolumbre, and not the entire União Brasil.

Allies of the Lula government in Congress already admitted, before the vote, that Alcolumbre’s name ended up weighing against Pacheco’s candidacy at times, which increased the account of what the government needed to do to guarantee victory.

Without giving details of what the bargaining chips were, they admit that the PT, for example, runs the risk of ending up without the presidency of prominent committees in the Senate.

They also understand that, if it weren’t for an intensification in the government’s movement to get votes from senators, Pacheco’s margin of victory would be smaller than the score recorded this Wednesday.

“We were very confident that if the election were held yesterday or today, in the early afternoon, we would have a great possibility of victory, but it is a fact that there was a very strong effort by our opponent and the government itself”, stated Marinho after the defeat.

He even insinuated that there may have been an exchange of votes for office nominations, but said he has no way of proving that possibility.

“I can’t say, because I didn’t see it, but there was clearly a decrease in the votes that we thought we had secured. . I’m not going to make pre-judgments”, he added.