Congress, wrong target – 10/22/2025 – Maria Hermínia Tavares

by Andrea
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There is an escalation in the criticism that opinion makers have leveled against it and the changing political grouping that controls it — the famous centrão.

The recent manifestations of bad mood with both legislative houses are fueled by the dizzying growth in the value of amendments in the Budget; the unsuccessful attempt to approve the ; the rejection of the MP that taxed some types of investments aimed at relieving the government’s cash flow; and the ambiguous behavior of the parties in that group, which are, but are not, in the government base.

Political commentators call parliamentarians “crooks” and “delinquents”; the most left wing of the government describes the Big Center —as it has had the honor of being mentioned abroad— as the enemy of the people; and the government itself is flirting with the possibility of appointing those who dictate the rules in both houses.

There is certainly no shortage of reasons for justified criticism. However, better than cursing, perhaps it is paying attention to the role of this Legislature — and the pragmatic right that controls it — in the functioning of the country’s multi-party presidential system. Where, by the way, the majority of the population leans to the right and, election after election, brings parliamentarians from that camp to Brasília. In a sense, Congress and the center are the face of the real country, not that of its literate elite, who do not recognize themselves in it.

From an institutional angle, the Legislature, with its prerogatives, is a “veto point”, as political scientists say, typical of a model of democracy characterized by numerous mechanisms preventing the concentration of decision-making capacity in the Executive. Such a system leads to the ultimate consequences that characterizes every democracy: the encouragement of negotiated solutions, which, by their nature, do not completely please anyone. Instead, they leave a bitter aftertaste of frustration.

From a political point of view, the existence of the center, flexible and realistic, makes possible consultation possible, filtering the most extreme proposals and producing moderate results, incremental changes. The counterpart of its pragmatism is the opacity of exchanges and the multiplication of opportunities for misallocation of public resources and their diversion for private benefit.

Thus, the system that limits the concentration of power and produces moderation, generates, on the other hand, numerous chances of corruption and reduces the scope of progressive reforms. That’s what happens. But it also imposes limits on more extreme right-wing policies. This is what was seen during Bolsonaro’s disastrous four-year period, when the worst proposals coming from the Planalto ended up in the drawers of the leaders of both houses.

Finally, slow decisions, opaque negotiations and visible corruption give way to populist attacks, whose anti-elitist and anti-pluralist rhetoric finds Congress an easy — and mistaken — target.

There are those who imagine it possible to improve the country’s political life with well-designed reforms. There are those who believe in improving the many control institutions in the Judiciary, the Public Ministry, the Executive and the Legislature itself; in the press and in monitoring society. But Congress will always be what voters make of it.


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