Ministry of Women opposes government and condemns amnesty – 05/16/2023 – Power

After the Constitution and Justice Committee of the Chamber approved this Tuesday (16) the Amnesty PEC with full support from the PT of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Ministry of Women released a public note criticizing the measure and defending its overthrow .

“When will women’s political participation be taken seriously?”, asks the title of the note, which contrasts not only with the government’s position but with that defended by PT president Gleisi Hoffmann.

“This is the fourth time that this political right of women has been threatened. PEC 9/2023 is being processed less than a year after the last amnesty approved by the National Congress in May 2022”, wrote the folder, stating that it followed the procedure with concern. .

The text published on the official website is signed only “Ministry of Women”, not bringing the name of Minister Cida Gonçalves, who is affiliated with the PT.

The minister is an activist and specialist in gender violence. She was part of the second echelon of the previous governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff and built her political career in bodies dedicated to combating violence at the state and federal levels.

“The correlation of forces between the genders, in which the private space was reserved for women and the public space for men, remains today as imperative in the sexual division of labor, since it still falls on women to take care of their children. children and the house, one of the biggest challenges for political participation”, continues the note.

He also says that women who, overcoming adversities, “manage to enter public life, are still systematically silenced by gender political violence”.

The folder suggests that the PEC be overthrown and that the unused resources be allocated to a fund to compensate, as a priority, women and black people indebted in the campaign.

“Overthrowing PEC 9/2023 and enforcing the law is the true democratic spirit, of union and reconstruction that Brazil needs at this moment”, ends the text, in indirect reference to the slogan of the Lula government, “union and reconstruction”.

The CCJ of the Chamber approved the Amnesty PEC, a proposed amendment to the Constitution that promotes the greatest pardon in history for political parties, by 45 votes to 10.

Supported by a large majority of parties, including government leaders, José Guimarães (PT-CE), and opposition leaders, Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ), the proposal now goes to a special commission, the last step before the plenary vote, where he needs the vote of at least 308 of the 513 parliamentarians.

In the session, Gleisi Hoffmann defended the party from criticism for supporting the measure even though it has historically been in favor of gender and race quotas.

The national president of the PT said that the party reaffirms its commitment to the policy of quotas and that it will present amendments to the project in the special commission and in plenary.

The PT even published a note of repudiation on its website during the CCJ session, but the text was withdrawn moments later.

The approved PEC has only three articles. The first extends the amnesty to parties that have not met the minimum quota for transferring public funds to women and blacks to the October 2022 dispute. In April 2022, Congress had already approved and enacted a PEC granting amnesty to parties for non-compliance with quotas in previous elections.

The second article establishes that “sanctions of any nature shall not apply, including the return and collection of amounts, fines or suspension of the Party Fund and the Special Campaign Financing Fund, on the rendering of accounts for the financial and electoral period of the political parties that prior to the enactment of this amendment to the Constitution”.

The third allows parties to receive business money again “to settle debts with suppliers contracted or assumed until August 2015”, when the STF (Federal Supreme Court) prohibited the financing of companies to parties and candidates.