Rui Costa leaves the articulation with Congress and Lula gives power to Padilha

The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, decided to step back from his role in the political articulation of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the face of the various criticisms that the government has faced in recent weeks. The strategy is part of a movement by the Planalto Palace in order to pave the way for the Executive’s relationship with the support base of the National Congress.

According to members of the government, Costa’s retreat should benefit, mainly, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha. Despite being directly responsible for articulating with the Chamber and the Senate, Padilha was seen by parliamentarians as a “minister without ink in his pen”, as the agreements he entered into needed the approval of the Civil House. With the change in strategy, the expectation is that Padilha’s agreements pass through Costa’s portfolio without hindrance.

Since taking over the Civil House, Rui Costa has signaled that his portfolio would be restricted to management and would not enter into the political articulation of the government. His portfolio, however, is responsible for releasing and immediately distributing the main demands of deputies and senators.

It is through the Civil House, for example, that nominations for second- and third-level government positions are passed. In addition to parliamentary amendments, the Lula government has used positions in state-owned companies and regulatory agencies to house political allies of Centrão parties that make up the base.

Minister’s resistance to receiving parliamentarians resulted in defeats for Planalto

Costa’s resistance to receiving congressmen became one of the main obstacles to the government’s political articulation. Deputies and senators sent complaints to President Lula that they were not being received by the head of the Civil House or even having agendas canceled at the last minute.

This strategy resulted in the government’s defeat in the Chamber of Deputies in the vote that overturned parts of Lula’s decree on the Sanitation Framework. Deputies scheduled by the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), to negotiate with Planalto ended up not being received by Costa, which irritated the parliamentarians. After the defeat, the Minister of the Civil House recognized the error in the strategy.

“I think we have to admit our mistake. I had asked two or three times that we hold a meeting with the leaders in advance to present the decree [do Marco do Saneamento]. And, due to the excess of work, this meeting, and the parliamentarians’ agenda, we were unable to hold this meeting in advance”, explained the minister in an interview with GloboNews.

After that, the Minister of the Civil House began to be criticized because of his performance during the processing of the Provisional Measure that restructured the Esplanada dos Ministérios. The text was approved within the deadline and was only appreciated by the Chamber after Lula entered directly into the negotiations.

With the avalanche of criticism due to his political activities, Rui Costa reduced his statements and public appearances in recent days. In addition, he began to reserve space in his agenda to receive parliamentarians.

Rui Costa’s performance resulted in criticism among Lula’s allies

In addition to criticism from deputies and senators from center parties such as the MDB, PSD and União Brasil, Rui Costa also became the target of “friendly fire” even among PT members. Privately, members of the PT bench consider that Costa’s choice for the Civil House was a mistake given his political inability.

In recent days, for example, the minister was involved in a controversy after classifying Brasília as a “fantasy island”. For members of the government, Rui Costa missed the “timing to commit such sincerity”. The internal assessment is that the post of minister should weigh when making such statements.

During an event in Bahia, the Chief of Staff criticized the choice of the capital of Brazil, claiming that the structure of Brasília leaves legislators far from the reality of poverty found in other large metropolises.

“It was better [a capital] having stayed in Rio de Janeiro, or having gone to São Paulo, Minas or Bahia, so that whoever was going to enter a building like that, or the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, would pass, before arriving at their place of work, in a favela, under an overpass, with people asking for food, seeing people unemployed”, declared Costa.

Federal deputy Érika Kokay (PT) also stated that Rui Costa’s statement “is typical of someone who does not know the city and the DF”. “Here is the capital of the Republic, land of working people. People who work, produce, study, who suffer from the lack of public services, who dance, who laugh, who express themselves in the most diverse ways and who, in addition to all this , hosts and receives very well those who come here to work for the country”, argued the minister’s co-religionist.

Without mentioning the head of Lula’s Civil House, Lira asked ministers for “restraint” and reinforced that statements like Rui Costa’s “do not help” in the articulation of the government. In the face of criticism, Rui Costa used social networks to say that he “wasn’t happy with the words” and that the statements had just been an “outburst”.

“Last Friday, I was in Itaberaba, Bahia, at an event for the delivery of yet another hospital. There, I vented my feelings and demonstrated my disagreement with the process of choices and decisions taken. By citing Brasília as the center of political power, I am not I was happy in my words, which allowed some to turn my statement into an attack on the city or its people,” he wrote.