Republicans distance themselves from Lula

The Republicans’ change of position in relation to Bill 2.630/2020, the so-called Fake News PL – with the decision to vote against the text – not only made it impossible to advance the proposal but also distanced the party further from the government base by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT).

Pressured by the evangelical community, which brings together a significant part of the party’s supporters, and by the wave of protests on social networks, the self-declared independent party had to back down in its effort to bring the project to a vote in the Chamber on Tuesday (2).

The national president of the Republicans, federal deputy Marcos Pereira (SP), had already instructed the party’s parliamentarians on Saturday (29) to vote against the Fake News PL, which came to be called the Censorship PL by critics.

The party had asked the rapporteur, deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB) to make changes to the text suggested by the evangelical bench. But, they were considered insufficient to make the text acceptable.

Also on Saturday, a note from the Evangelical Parliamentary Front advised a contrary vote due to “devices that would curb plurality and Christian values”. Behind the scenes, members of the bench were concerned about the possibility of censorship on social networks of statements about biblical texts or debates involving religion that could generate controversy.

“It took us many years to approve the Marco Civil da Internet, which resulted from a consensus project, approved with a whole series of concerns about freedom of opinion and the need for accountability for excesses. To improve this regulation, dialogue is still needed”, said the president of the Evangelical Front in the Senate, Carlos Viana (Podemos-MG). These and other reactions left the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), insecure about keeping the Fake News PL on the agenda in the face of the possibility of defeat in the vote. In addition, Lira has not yet set the new date on which the project will be analyzed in the plenary of the Chamber.

The Fake News Bill was removed from the agenda on Tuesday (2) at the request of the rapporteur after the government itself realized that it would be defeated in plenary.

Republicans helped defeat government in the House in debate on Marco do Saneamento

On the following day, Wednesday, the 3rd, the Republicans collaborated with another defeat for Lula in the Chamber: the approval of the Legislative Decree Project (PDL) that annuls the changes made by the government in the Sanitation Framework.

Among the changes that caused the most controversy about the decree is the loophole created by Lula for state-owned companies to assume contracts with municipalities without having to participate in bidding processes. The milestone had made private investment take off in the sector. The Republican votes to bar Lula’s proposed change amounted to 34 of the 35 deputies present at the poll. The bill still needs to pass the Senate.

Support for the urgency of the Fake News PL caused internal shocks in the Republicans

The Republicans’ initial support for the urgent request for the vote on the Fake News PL directly in plenary and without going through thematic committees last week provoked criticism from important Republican politicians, including the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas.

“There is an essential issue on our part, which is precisely the creation of this agency to be the “Ministry of Truth” [previsto no projeto]. It’s really impossible to vote for it,” she declared. When a Republican municipal president asked Freitas to record a video for the acronym, the governor refused, stating that he would wait for the PL vote.

A People’s GazetteSenator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), former minister in the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), said last Friday (28) that she saw a “strange coincidence” between the approval of the urgency of the PL of Fake News and the approval of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) to investigate the acts of vandalism on January 8.

“Why the rush to pass this law? To shut us up during the CPMI? So that people do not share what the CPMI will find?”, he questioned. Discomfort within the party even led parliamentarians to consider migrating to União Brasil or PL, depending on the vote on the project.

Republicans spearheaded creation of Centrão party bloc in the House

In the role of an alternative center and eventual collaborator of governance, the Republicans spearheaded the creation of the second largest party bloc in the Chamber, with 142 deputies from five parties.

The first articulations of this bloc with the Planalto brought progress, such as the decisive participation of Republican leaders and other acronyms in the maneuver carried out on May 18 to postpone the Congressional session and, thus, prevent the creation of the CPMI on January 8. The government later passed the CPMI. This occurred in view of the dissemination of images of members of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) who did not act to contain the vandals who invaded and destroyed the headquarters of the Executive.

In recent weeks, the government has acted more intensely to bring Republicans to the bottom. In this sense, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) and Minister Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) were present at the National Convention of the Assemblies of God of the Ministry of Madureira (Conamad), held on April 21, in Brasília.

Another effort to attract the conservative party was the affiliation of the political group of Congresswoman Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil-RJ), Minister of Tourism, to the Republicans, with the support of representatives of the Planalto in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.

Membership may require a place on the Esplanada dos Ministérios

For Bruno Carazza, political analyst and professor at Fundação Dom Cabral, the government made a mistake by putting the Fake News Bill to be voted on urgently. “The strategy aroused resistance from important benches, allying Bolsonarist deputies with those sympathetic to Lula on evangelical fronts,” he said.

Carazza does not believe, however, that the search for Republican support by the Lula government is definitively suspended. “Support will only become more expensive in the face of the government’s proof of weakness in the Fake News PL”, he added.

Parliamentary advisors linked to the Republican bloc mention a demand for a ministry for the party as a condition to guarantee continuity in the articulation in favor of expanding the governing base.