PGR calls for the end of ‘Patriot’s Day’ on 8/1 in Porto Alegre – 08/26/2023 – Politics

The PGR (Attorney General of the Republic) filed a lawsuit with the STF (Federal Supreme Court) on Friday (25) to declare unconstitutional the municipal law of Porto Alegre that instituted January 8 as “Patriot’s Day” .

On that date, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the three Powers, in Brasília.

The action was filed by deputy prosecutor Carlos Frederico Santos, coordinator of the Strategic Group to Combat Anti-Democratic Acts. He asks that the process be analyzed by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur for the investigations that investigate the attacks.

“It is inadmissible to draft immoral and anti-republican laws, whose purpose is to exalt and commemorate the practice of acts contrary to the democratic rule of law. Such acts, instead of being encouraged, exalted and promoted, must be duly sanctioned and punished with the rigors of the law by the competent authorities”, says an excerpt from the action.

Carlos Frederico also claims that the law violates the republican, democratic and moral principles, in addition to highlighting that action would be the only means capable of “resolving the harmfulness of the norm in a broad, general and immediate way”.

The action also calls for the manifestation of the mayor of Porto Alegre, Sebastião Melo (MDB), who did not comment on the law and compulsorily allowed its enactment; Mayor Hamilton Sossmeier (PTB); and the AGU (Advocacy General of the Union).

This Saturday (26), the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB), said that a law cannot honor “a date of perpetration of crimes”. “From the perspective of constitutional law, the answer is very clear. The law affronts the principles of morality, the republican form, the representative system and the democratic regime.”

Through social media, Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-AM), rapporteur for the CPI on January 8, stated that the creation of the commemorative date in Porto Alegre is an appalling act.

“It is disturbing to see the promotion of an event that hurt democracy and that entered the chapter of the saddest stories”, he wrote.

The law enacted in Porto Alegre was proposed on March 15th by then councilor Alexandre Bobadra (PL) and promulgated by Hamilton Sossmeier on July 10th.

Bobadra would lose his mandate five months after proposing the law, when he was defeated in an appeal to the Regional Electoral Court of Rio Grande do Sul.

He was impeached for abuse of economic power for using alone 43% of the resources of the electoral fund of the then PSL, the party for which he ran and was elected in 2020. In the 2022 elections, Bobadra was involved in a fight with punches and chairs with the colleague Leonel Radde (PT).

In justifying the bill, the PL councilor praises the figure of the patriot, “the one who loves his country and seeks to serve it in the best possible way”, says that the country faces “a dangerous process of extinction of what is its patriotism” and points to “attack vanguards: the media, teaching, globalist entities, universities, militant culture”. He makes no mention of the coup attacks in Brasilia, nor does he explain why the celebration date is January 8.

The proposal for “Patriot’s Day” did not make it to the plenary.

As is customary in PLL (Legislative Bills), used for tributes and other projects of little legislative relevance, the text was handled only by the committees. He would only go to plenary if the councilors so requested the Board of Directors.

The project was then forwarded to the mayor for analysis and would be approved automatically if he did not manifest the sanction or veto within 15 days. In view of the silence of Mayor Melo, the promulgation by the President of the Chamber is compulsory.