The steam crisis factories – 11/28/2023 – Elio Gaspari

Lula reaches the end of his first year in government favored by crises that only produce steam. The best examples of this phenomenon are in three distinct episodes.

The first appeared in the first weeks of January, when the government’s unreasonable attacks against the Central Bank began. They almost descended into personal insults against the president of the BC, Roberto Campos Neto. When the shouting started, interest rates were at 13.75% per year. Ten months have passed, they are at 12.25%, without any noise. The anger had a lot of theater and little conviction.

Another is the case of Saudi jewelry. He comes from the Bolsonaro government, reappears, heats up the atmosphere and disappears until his next appearance. A few days ago, information came that the American government is collaborating in the investigation. From the beginning it has been known that Bolsonaro pocketed the Widow’s jewelry and watches.

The third case is more complex. This is the numerical and constitutional difficulty that forces Planalto to negotiate with the Chamber of Deputies, where Dr. Arthur Lira controls his powerful bloc. Since January, each month there has been news of strange operations involving him. They appear, disappear and return. Furthermore, with each disagreement comes the threat that Lira will shut down the agenda of her large estate. This organ is played every two months. In this case, the essentials go to the background of the scene. The frying of the president of Caixa Econômica was noticed in June. When it fell in October, it seemed like a consequence of the law of gravity.

The anger over interest rates and the setbacks over the jewelry case were thunder. The delivery of Caixa was a bolt of lightning that struck one of the largest banks in the country.

The hot topic is the form that the dispute between the Senate and the Federal Supreme Court took. The government and Lula are technically outside this ring. The Senate approved a constitutional amendment that limits the monocratic powers of STF ministers. From the Supreme Court came cries that there are no cowards there. Who said that? Then rumors arose that, in court, someone spoke of “the end of the honeymoon” with Planalto. It got worse.

Even the STF’s window panes know that the Senate’s PEC needs to go through the Chamber, where Arthur Lira’s filter is. What could have been a productive debate was turned into a heated argument.

This distortion is in the genetic code of some Supreme Court ministers, enchanted by their own projection. Proof of this is that none of them complain when it is said that so-and-so went to that position because they had Minister A or B as their godfather. Deputies and senators live with projections and platforms. Magistrates can avoid them.

All the tensions that arose in Lula’s first year fit into a single visit by Bolsonaro through the Alvorada enclosure. After four years of provocations, Lula will close the year with the merit of having relaxed political relations.

Even so, the retired captain seems to have left something of his style in the surroundings of the Planalto and in the sensibility of the Judiciary. Useless crises are just useless and serve, at most, to blow away the vanities of those who get involved in them.

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