PL must nominate Nikolas to the Chamber’s education body – 03/06/2024 – Power

The PL, party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, must nominate the name of federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) to head the Education committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

Nikolas is one of the most active names in the opposition to the Lula (PT) government in the House. He was the federal deputy with the most votes across the country in the 2022 elections (with 1.49 million votes).

The choice of Nikolas generated dissatisfaction among leaders of the government base, who considered the name of the parliamentarian to preside over a commission considered strategic for the government to be an affront to the Executive.

On the afternoon of this Wednesday (6), party leaders met with the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), to request the postponement of the installation of the collegiate bodies, scheduled for this afternoon. The request, however, was denied.

Parliamentarians complained about the lack of time to carry out negotiations on the composition of bodies and presidencies. Base leaders wanted more time to try to reverse Nikolas’ nomination.

Government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), says that there was an agreement with the PL so that the PT could nominate the first vice-president of the Education collegiate. In exchange, Bolsonaro’s party will nominate the first vice-president of the Health commission, which will be chaired by the PT.

“The parties have the prerogatives to nominate the names they want, we made several considerations about some nominations. And in the end the PL does not give up and we will pacify. They will nominate the deputy of the Health commission and the PT will nominate the vice of the Education committee to mitigate all these tensions. But there is a commitment from the leader [do PL] Altineu [Côrtes] of not creating any difficulties in the policies that Minister Camilo Santana is developing”, said Guimarães.

“Evidently, whoever is going to preside over a commission of this importance cannot do anything crazy. We are going to act to work and not have any surprises and much less persecution of the educational policies that the government is implementing”, continued the deputy.

Guimarães also stated that the Executive’s priority was to have command of the Financial Inspection and Control Commission. The collegiate has the power to summon all State ministers to provide clarifications and was used in 2023 by the opposition to wear down the Executive.

“This was the government’s priority. For those in government, not having this commission creates an enormous difficulty”, continued Guimarães.

The PT-PC federation of B-PV will be in charge of six commissions: Health, Financial Inspection and Control, Culture, Human Rights, Amazon and Original Peoples and Women.

Leader of the opposition in the Chamber, deputy Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) says that Nikolas has “complete legitimacy” to preside over the collegiate, which “historically is presided over and dominated by the left”.

“We believe it is an appropriate name, that it has the vision of education that we believe in, a vision that school and school environments should be places for the transmission of knowledge and not for ideological impositions of political views on teachers”, says Jordy to Sheet.

Last year, the collegiate was chaired by Moses Rodrigues (União Brasil-CE).

In addition to the Education committee, the PL will have command of the CCJ (Constitution and Justice), considered the main one in the Chamber, since all matters are processed there. The party must nominate the name of federal deputy Caroline de Toni (PL-SC), also linked to the Bolsonaro wing of the party.

The PL must also preside, among other bodies, over Social Security, Social Assistance, Childhood, Adolescence and Family, and appoint deputy Pastor Eurico (PL-PE) to occupy the position of president.

In 2023, the collegiate, formed mainly by parliamentarians opposing the government, approved projects such as the one that prohibits the possibility of civil marriage between people of the same sex in Brazil —Pastor Eurico was the rapporteur for this matter.