Lula’s minister attacks Bolsonaro and says he “gave up on making a political agenda”

Minister Alexandre Padilha, of Institutional Relations, attacked former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) because of the difference in political articulation with Congress. He stated this Friday (22) that Bolsonaro “abdicated” from interacting with congressmen, to whom he had delegated functions that would have been the responsibility of the Executive Branch.

According to Padilha, the former president would have let Congress define the country’s priority agenda, while the current government directed discussions towards projects that interest the population, mainly those focused on the economic area.

For him, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) resumed what he calls “coalition presidentialism”, while Bolsonaro practiced “delegation presidentialism”.

“The previous president delegated, abdicated from setting the political agenda. Do not think that there is a possibility of the return of this delegation presidentialism. Let’s build together the political agenda that was presented by the country, with dialogue, because that’s how it’s done in democracy,” he said.

The speech comes at a time of friction between the government and Congress, which charged the bill for having approved several economic measures sent throughout the year to increase tax revenue and try to reach the goal of eliminating the deficit in public accounts in 2024.

Congress took discussions on next year’s Budget until the last day of the legislative year, this Friday (22), with the reserve of R$53 billion for the payment of parliamentary amendments and R$4.9 billion for the “fundão ” – the electoral fund to finance the 2024 campaign.

On the other hand, the government was defeated after having a cut of R$7 billion in investments in the New PAC – the government’s main showcase – next year. The predicted amount went from R$61.3 billion to R$54 billion.

The cut generated an immediate reaction from the national president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, who attacked the parliamentarians saying that there had been a “usurpation of the functions of the Executive Branch”. “A huge distortion in a country that needs large investments to grow,” she said.

On the other hand, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), came out in defense of the amendments and said that they directly affect the lives of Brazilians, with investments in infrastructure closer to the population. “[O governo] doesn’t control the budget”, he said.