Pacheco reads application and creates CPI of January 8 – 04/26/2023 – Power

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), read this Wednesday (26) the request for the creation of the January 8 CPI in a session of the National Congress. The reading takes place after a change in strategy by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government, which started to defend the commission to investigate coup attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers.

Initially, the opposition was the one who championed the creation of the CPI, with the aim of investigating the omission of the federal government in the case. Planalto’s strategy was to minimize movement, empty the idea and reiterate that the Federal Police and the Judiciary were playing their role as investigators.

The change in attitude occurred in the face of the crisis generated by the dissemination of images from the cameras of the internal circuit of the Palácio do Planalto and which led to the resignation of the minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office) Gonçalves Dias.

Last week, before the images were released, the government put pressure on and managed to postpone the session of Congress, then scheduled to take place on the 18th and in which the request could have been read by Pacheco.

After the release of the images, the government base began to move no longer to empty the commission, but to try to guarantee its majority and control its direction.

Now, after the reading, the parties will nominate their members and then choose the president and the rapporteur.

Its composition became the subject of dispute between the government base and the opposition, in an attempt to control the course of investigations and the narrative surrounding the coup acts.

Still this Wednesday, the leader of the government in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), maneuvered to get another vacancy in the commission for the base of the government. He made his party join the bloc along with the PT, thus gaining a nomination – and the one who loses it is precisely the PL and Novo group.

On the one hand, Lula’s PT rehearses the names of deputies Lindbergh Farias (RJ) and Rogerio Correia (MG) and senators Fabiano Contarato (ES) and Rogério Carvalho (SE).

Already the PL, of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has as quoted the deputies Eduardo Bolsonaro (RJ), André Fernandes (CE) and Alexandre Ramagem (RJ), and the senators Magno Malta (ES) and Jorge Seif (SC).

There must also be a dispute for the main positions of the CPI, those of president and rapporteur. The clash could put two former political rivals, Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) and the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), in front.

The focus of the investigation of the CPI will be Bolsonaristas, responsible for the coup attacks on the main buildings of the three Powers. This includes the vandals themselves, the organizers of the acts, the financiers of the camps and caravans and intellectual authors, such as former President Bolsonaro.

The PP, Lira’s party, is pressing for the appointment of federal deputy André Fufuca (PP-MA) to be the commission’s rapporteur and, despite the bylaws, argues that preference should be given to the Chamber of Deputies.

Lula’s base talks about rescheduling the Senate’s Covid CPI team and placing former members of the commission in one of the key positions, such as Renan —rapporteur of the pandemic CPI and who does not hide his interest in participating now in the commission that will investigate coup attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers.

For the Planalto Palace, the central concern should be to prevent parliamentarians who supported the January 8 attacks from occupying strategic positions. The PT is even considering going to court to block the participation of federal deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE), author of the request.

In the MDB, which should hold two positions, in addition to Renan, another candidate is the leader of the party in the Senate, Eduardo Braga (AM), who is even seen favorably by interlocutors in the Lula government.

Lira’s party has the right, in the block next to the Republicans, to nominate two senators. The most cited names in the corridors of Congress are Espiridião Amin (PP-SC) and Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS), both Bolsonarists — the second, including, was vice president of the former government.

Still in the Republicans, Bolsonaro’s former minister Damares Alves (DF) and Senator Cleitinho are mentioned as possible substitutes for Mourão.

União Brasil can be a key party, since it is entitled to two nominations and has, in its framework, names seen as pro-government and opposition.

In this sense, the PT welcomes Senator Soraya Thronicke (União-MS), who was the author of another request for the installation of a CPI to investigate the coup acts. Another name cited by the party is that of Deputy Arthur Maia (BA).

The PSB in the Senate, which makes up the block with PT and PSD, must give up its seat to one of the other two parties.

The CPI will be composed of 32 parliamentarians, half senators, half deputies. In the Chamber, Arthur Lira’s block (União Brasil, PP, PSDB, Cidadania, PDT, PSB, Avante, Solidariedade and Patriota), which is also the largest, will be entitled to nominate five deputies.

Next comes MDB, PSD, Republicans, Podemos and PSC, with four nominations; the PL, the highest acronym in the House, with three; the federation between PT, PC do B and PV will have two more; and PSOL and Rede, one.

In the Senate, the two largest blocks are pro-government: MDB, União Brasil, PDT, Rede, PSDB and Podemos, which will be entitled to six names in the CPI, followed by PT, PSD, PSB and Rede with six. PP and Republicans have two and PL and Novo have one.

The Lula government already accepts as certain the summoning of at least two ministers to the CPI: Flávio Dino (Justice) and José Múcio Monteiro (Defense).

In addition to them, assistants to the chief executive also believe that the current executive secretary of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), Ricardo Cappelli, and the former minister of the portfolio, general Gonçalves Dias, will also be in the sights of parliamentarians.

Petistas also say they are ready to call members of the top Bolsonarist echelon to provide clarification. Among them, the former head of the GSI Augusto Heleno, the former Minister of the Civil House and vice-president of Jair Bolsonaro, General Braga Netto, and the former head of Defense, General Paulo Sérgio.