The Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva| Photo: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Agência Brasil

The Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, admitted last Friday (2) the difficulties of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) with the National Congress. The head of the ministry said the Planalto seeks to improve articulation with the Chamber and the Senate.

“We will always work to improve [a articulação]. What doesn’t change is the layout of the dialogue. This is a government that does not create conflict and does not create unnecessary wars, as was done by the previous government. [de Jair Bolsonaro (PL)]”, evaluated Padilha.

The strategic move comes after the government was on the verge of suffering a historic defeat in the vote on the provisional measure that dealt with the restructuring of the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Congress. The MP would lose its validity this Thursday (1st), if not approved by the plenary sessions of the House and Senate.

In the case of deputies, the text was only analyzed after Lula negotiated an agreement by telephone with the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). After the conversation, the PT determined that the ministries of Institutional Relations and the Civil House would speed up the release of amendments and appointments of allies in second and third-level positions of the Executive.

In order to be able to vote on the MP da Esplanada in the plenary of the Chamber, Lula made a release of R$ 1.74 billion in parliamentary amendments. The amount is the largest ever released in a single day by the Planalto Palace since the beginning of the PT government. With the new release, the government has already invested R$ 4.9 billion in parliamentary amendments since the beginning of the year. The text was approved by 337 votes from the deputies.