Ricardo Lewandowski’s imminent departure from the Ministry of Justice opened two simultaneous fronts in the government: the dispute for a successor capable of dialoguing with Congress in an election year and the emptying of one of the department’s main bets, the Public Security PEC.
In Planalto, the reading is that the issue is unlikely to advance before the elections. The assessment was explained by the government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), in an interview with Economic Value released this Monday (12).
According to him, the proposal has lost political viability in the current context. “It has gone up through the roof”, he stated, recognizing that there is no environment to take the PEC to the plenary without a high risk of defeat.
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Guimarães also ruled out the possibility of creating a Ministry of Public Security later this year, an idea that was circulated as an alternative to the reorganization of the department after Lewandowski’s departure.
The diagnosis of the government leader is based on the electoral calendar and the sensitivity of the issue. For Guimarães, public security is a field in which the opposition tends to mobilize narratives of ideological confrontation, making it difficult to build a majority.
He conditioned any progress on changes in the report presented by deputy Mendonça Filho (União-PE). Without adjustments, he said, there would be no political rationality in submitting the proposal to a vote.
The impasse occurs precisely at a time when the government needs to redefine command of the Ministry of Justice. Lewandowski’s succession began to be discussed behind the scenes at Palácio do Planalto, with concerns about the profile of the next minister. In addition to technical capacity, the ability to manage a sensitive agenda in Congress and avoid new fronts of erosion with the opposition will be decisive.
In the interview, Guimarães also sought to reduce the temperature of the conflict between the PT and the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), after the friction at the end of last year. According to him, the “wounds are healing”, but the government is already working with a more selective strategy for the first legislative semester, prioritizing topics with a greater chance of approval.
Among these issues, the leader cited the reduction of the 6×1 work schedule as a priority for the Executive. In his assessment, this is a debate linked to recent transformations in the job market and with greater potential for support in Congress, unlike the public security agenda.
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Guimarães also placed the PEC impasse within a broader picture of the government’s difficulties in the Legislature. As vice-president of the PT and coordinator of the party’s electoral working group, he stated that this year’s election will be decisive in trying to change the correlation of forces in the Chamber and the Senate.
The goal, according to him, is to expand the PT bench and prevent the opposition from consolidating a majority in the Senate.
In a frustrated tone, the deputy described the government’s relationship with Congress as harsh and exhausting, reflecting a scenario in which the Executive needs to calibrate each movement.
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In this context, Lewandowski’s departure not only reopens the dispute for a key position, but also symbolizes Planalto’s tactical retreat from an agenda that, at least for now, has remained outside of legislative priorities.
