Arthur Lira generates the first institutional crisis of the Lula government in Congress – 03/22/2023

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), did not accept the proposed agreement with the Senate for the rite of processing provisional measures in Congress. The proposal for an agreement was presented by the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), in a meeting this Wednesday, 22.

With no prospect of an agreement in the short term for processing the MPs, the first institutional crisis of the Lula government took hold. Measures such as the one that changes the organization chart of the public machine and the new rules for Bolsa Família, as well as the Mais Médicos and Minha Casa, Minha Vida programs are paralyzed, at risk of expiring.

Lira insists that the procedure established on an extraordinary basis during the pandemic be maintained, which gives the Chamber practically the last word on the content of the MPs. The Senate defended the return to the system established in the Constitution, which submits the MP to a special committee of the two Houses, with alternation of rapporteurs.

Faced with the impasse, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, proposed the publication of a Proposal for a Constitutional Amendment (PEC) alternating the last word on the text of the MPs — now in the Chamber, now in the Senate. Pacheco accepted, but Lira, who had waved to the leaders with the possibility of an agreement, ended up going back.

Lula planned to travel with Pacheco and Lira to China, accompanied by leaders of the House and Senate to start the new phase of priority government projects, such as the processing of the fiscal framework that will replace the spending cap and tax reform.

But Lira refused to travel. Publicly, she argues that she wants to stay in Brazil to help articulate these two projects. Without an agreement with the Senate, the climate in Congress is not at all favorable to establishing consensus for important votes like these.

The president of the Chamber told Padilha that the problem is not him, but the senators, who want to overthrow the government’s projects. He argued that, if Planalto gives the Chamber the final word on the projects, “everything will go faster”.

Senators like Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), however, argued with the minister that the mayor is wanting to protect the government, in the same way he did in the Bolsonaro administration, but this time also commanding the Senate.

The leader of the government in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), says that the Planalto “insists on the agreement”. But he admits that while this agreement does not come, the MPs will not move forward.

Senate leaders charge President Rodrigo Pacheco to install mixed commissions, as required by the Constitution, and let Lira try to complain to the Federal Supreme Court. As the Constitution provides for the ancient rite, they believe that Lira would be defeated.

But the problem is that the president of the Chamber has the support of the leaders of the House. If they do not indicate their representatives to the commissions, or if they simply boycott the vote, the MPs will expire in the same way, which leaves the Planalto Palace in a panic.