SP Assembly has old agreements and challenges to Tarcísio – 03/04/2023 – Power

With the end of the PSDB’s dominance in São Paulo politics, the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo will start the new legislature on the 15th following traditions, but with other actors and organizational challenges in the government base of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans).

The former agreement between PSDB-PT rivals for the election of the Board of Directors will be carried out in this edition by PL-PT, antagonistic acronyms in the polarization between Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Lula (PT).

This is because the two parties have the largest benches with 19 and 18 deputies, respectively – while the PSDB, with 9, will be demoted.

On the 15th, when 54 re-elected deputies and 40 new ones will take office, there should be no surprise in the election of the Board, already agreed between the approximately 70 parliamentarians from the base and the 19 from the PT, PC do B and PV federation.

André do Prado (PL) should be elected president, with Teonílio Barba (PT) in the 1st Secretariat and Rogério Nogueira (PSDB) in the 2nd Secretariat.

Only PSOL, whose elected bench has 5 deputies, will launch an opposition candidacy with Carlos Giannazi. The party has been critical of the PT’s adherence to the government in the election of the Bureau – the post in the 1st Secretariat gives the PT about 80 positions in the House.

Currently, the president is Carlão Pignatari (PSDB), with Luiz Fernando (PT) in the 1st Secretariat, and Nogueira, who was from the DEM, in the 2nd Secretariat.

At the same time that the new legislature will move on the familiar ground of the proportionality agreement, which governs the composition of the Board since 1995 with some exceptions, the change in command from the PSDB to the PL after almost 30 years reconfigures politics at Alesp.

On the one hand, PL and Republicans have the mission of learning the tools for controlling and negotiating agendas, something already mastered by the toucans, while the left-wing opposition sees a window of opportunity with the numerous benches.

Bolsonaristas, in turn, staunch opponents in the João Doria administration, say that they now need to learn to act at the base, which includes moderating inflammatory speeches on the tribune.

André do Prado is in his third term and was chosen from the PL bench by the president of the acronym, Valdemar da Costa Neto – with the support of Tarcísio. The post of leader of the government fell to the Republicans, which is occupied by Jorge Wilson (Republicans), deputy considered from the low clergy.

Behind the scenes, base deputies exposed complaints about the Tarcísio government to the report, such as lack of relationship with the House, delay in answering requests and lack of appreciation of politicians, passed over for positions in the secretariats.

They also report a lack of intimacy with the Chief of Staff, Arthur Lima, who has no background in politics and was chosen by Tarcísio for his technical profile – he is a lawyer who has worked at Aman (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras).

Deputies close to the Palácio dos Bandeirantes and members of the government said they did not know, for example, what will be the first article to be sent by Tarcísio for a vote in the House, nor what is the plan to implement CPIs that do not harass the governor, barring opposition ones – something that the PSDB achieved in previous years.

Parliamentarians heard by Sheet indicate that the privatization of Sabesp must be the most sensitive topic of the Tarcísio administration and there is a fear that the project will not be fully embraced by the base, which will be pressured by voters concerned about the increase in the water bill.

The Tarcísio government defined that the articulations with the Assembly will be made after the 15th, and the work will be in charge of the Secretary of Government, Gilberto Kassab (PSD). He minimizes complaints from the base, which he sees as something normal.

To guarantee his election, André pledged to maintain the PT’s space in the Bureau and has been negotiating the leadership of commissions with several parties. The most important of them, the Constitution, Justice and Writing, must pass from the PSDB to the PL – Thiago Auricchio (PL) must be the president.

The PT pleads for the Education and Human Rights commission, which would be chaired by Eduardo Suplicy (PT).

The House has already created two new commissions, for Tourism and for the Rights of People with Disabilities, to support André’s broad front – the second should be with activist Andréa Werner (PSB), a party that Tarcísio wants to attract to the base.

As shown to Sheetthe PL-PT agreement depends on the Bolsonarist group voting for Barba for the 1st Secretariat, something that some of the deputies are willing to face and some are not, fearing bad repercussions with radical voters.

Alesp’s bylaws require a nominal vote for the presidency of the Board. But for the other positions, as long as there is only one candidate, it is possible to carry out a symbolic vote – which avoids the embarrassment of the public vote of Bolsonaristas in the PT.

For this reason, André works hard for PSOL to launch only Giannazi instead of a complete list. At PSOL, the assessment is that only the position of the presidency matters, since the others do not influence the voting agenda.

Over the years, traditions other than proportionality have been consolidated at Alesp and will now be managed by Tarcísio’s base, such as the arrangement that each of the 94 deputies has a project approved per semester.

In practice, however, the agenda is dominated by government projects. At the end of last year, in an attempt to accommodate the deputies, the Assembly approved 79 proposals at once, but most of them have already been or will be vetoed by Tarcísio.

To speed up projects of interest to the government, the toucans made use of the figure of the special rapporteur, who circumvents the obstruction of the opposition in the committees, and also paid for a record volume of voluntary amendments, mainly benefiting lower-level parliamentarians.

Another peculiarity of Alesp is that deputies take office only on March 15, and the legislature begins on February 1 in the National Congress and other Assemblies. This year’s inauguration, however, will be the last on that date – in 2019, the plenary approved the change to February 1, which takes effect in 2027.

The PSDB-PT agreement began in the management of Ricardo Tripoli (PSDB) at the head of the House in 1995. He joined the PT precisely to circumvent the majority of the MDB and prevent the election of the Board from following a proportional criterion —the two parties were opposition to the previous emedebist governments.

Over the years, PSDB and PT made the largest benches and maintained the agreement, justifying it by proportionality. The alliance was put into practice even in 2018, when PSL Bolsonaristas surpassed both acronyms in number of elected officials, but decided to launch their own candidacy for the Board and ended up isolated.

X-ray

• What does the Legislative Assembly do?

• Protects the state budget and supervises its execution, as well as accounts and contracts

• Investigates illicit acts, based on CPIs

• Chooses two thirds of the State Audit Court

• Follows the execution of the plans of the state government

94
is the number of state deputies in SP