Former Federal Supreme Court (STF) minister Nelson Jobim said on Thursday (3) that the Brazilian government system is experiencing a “double dysfunctionality”: in the National Congress, marked by the domain of parliamentary amendments; and in the executive, due to internal disputes between wings with opposite economic views.
According to him, it would be up to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) to play a mediation role – which, in his view, is not occurring.
“The arbitration had to be done by the president, but Lula plays a lot. It gives to one, it gives another. We have complete the complete dysfunctionality, which was radicalized. And we return to the speech before the 2002 election: poor against rich,” Jobim said during a panel at the Lisbon Forum, promoted by STF Minister Gilmar Mendes.
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For Jobim, the executive’s paralysis stems from the clash between the government’s developmental wing – linked to the PT summit – and the nucleus considered modernizing, represented by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.
In the legislature, the defunctionality would be in excessive power concentrated in the hands of parliamentarians through the control of amendments to the budget, which weakens political coordination.
The former minister criticized the absence in Lula’s current term of influential interlocutors capable of imposing limits on the president. He cited as a reference names that were part of the first petista mandate, such as José Dirceu, Antonio Palocci, Luiz Gushiken, Gilberto Carvalho and Márcio Thomaz Bastos.
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“Today, there is no one near that can say ‘no’ to Lula. Everyone says ‘yes’. The economy is not bad, but the policy does not work. And the president does not appropriate this economic advantage,” he said.
Semi -PRESIDENTIALISM IN DEBATE
Jobim’s statements occurred during a table dedicated to the discussion of semi -presidentialism, one of the proposals in debate in Congress as an alternative to the current political model. For the former minister, Brazilian presidentialism lost capacity for operation, and it is up to the legislature to lead the construction of a new regime.
“What matters is not the concept, but the design and construction of the model. This is the task of the National Congress,” he said.
