The former president José Sarney commented, on Tuesday (8), that he does not know the bill that is being processed in the House and provides amnesty for those involved in the acts of January 8, 2023but highlighted the importance of the National Union.
“I do not want to interfere or infer my position with any political struggle, in which my age no longer allows. I can no longer be able to go into political struggles. But that Brazil, increasingly, is united, because a divided house does not thrive,” he said.
Although he avoided an opinion directly about the proposal, Sarney mentioned the amnesty approved during the redemocratization process, still in the military dictatorship, in 1979.
The measure benefited both persecuted politicians and agents of the regime involved in human rights violations.
“Look, I didn’t have the opportunity to check exactly the reasons this project has. But I can talk about the amnesty I participated in so that we could make the democratic transition. So we negotiated with all sectors of society, so that both sides were benefited by amnesty,” he recalled.
Sarney assumed the presidency of the Republic in 1985, with the death of Tancredo Neves, and was the first civilian to govern the country after two decades of military dictatorship. His government, marked as the beginning of the New Republic, is considered as fundamental to consolidate the democratic process and conciliation of opposite sectors in national politics.
Nevertheless, Sarney chose not to comment on the current political scenario or make a value judgment about the amnesty proposal to the prisoners of the acts of 8 January.
“I have to normally not talk about my predecessors, or my successors. It’s my style, it’s my temperament. So I think each rules the time he rules. And at that time many things can happen,” he said.
He stressed that he is away from parliamentary life and, therefore, is not comfortable emitting a position on the project under discussion.
“And I, who I’m no longer participating in the National Congress, no longer know the project, do not know its extension, so that I leave you that I can not give their opinion today about the amnesty,” he said.
Amnesty plus
Locked in the House of Representatives since last year, the bill that benefits involved in the attacks on the Three Powers Square in Brasilia has been the target of intense attacks from opposition parliamentarians.
Without a definitive response from the mayor, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), about guarding the text in plenary, the Liberal Party (PL) bench has threatened to obstruct the house’s agenda.
Hugo, however, said he will not give in the pressures and will discuss the text with party leaders by the end of this month. Today, the tendency is to send the project to a personal commission before guiding it in the House plenary.
Since taking over the chair of president, the amnesty has been one of the biggest charges directed at him. The fear of the opposition is that a possible recovery of the popularity of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) can weaken support for the initiative in the legislature.
The main amnesty project forgives those who committed political or electoral crimes, being protesters, truckers, businessmen and all who participated in demonstrations on national highways, in front of military units or anywhere in the national territory on October 30, 2022 to the day of entry into force of this future law.
In practice, the text does not benefit Jair Bolsonaro, which is ineligible until 2030.
