Salary adjustments, pensions, staff expansion and benefits aimed at security force agents dominated (-RJ)’s speech in his 16 years as state deputy in Rio.
In at least 76 of the 214 statements he made in Alerj between 2003 and 2018, Hoje defended measures of this type for police officers, firefighters and prison guards in the state.
Public security was the dominant theme in 68% (145) of the then-deputy’s speeches — four times the average of 163 parliamentarians who spoke in the same period (17%). Health appeared as the dominant theme in only 3 statements (1%), and education, in 4 (2%).
Flávio’s speeches as state deputy also praise the period of , with endorsement of the then federal deputy’s tribute to Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra (one of the main exponents of torture in the regime), as well as criticism of racial quotas and the family model with homosexuals.
As a pre-candidate for the Palácio do Planalto, Flávio has tried to move away from the radicalized image of his father. At the same time, his allies in the economic area have preached a .
The senator’s team stated in a statement that Flávio Bolsonaro’s actions “always reflected a clear priority: confronting the advance of organized crime and defending the population held hostage by drug trafficking and criminal factions.”
“This, however, never prevented action in other areas, with severe demands for improvements in the lives of the people of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout his mandates, Flávio presented projects linked to health, mobility, rights of people with disabilities, transparency, disaster prevention, family planning and consumer protection, in addition to allocating resources to hospitals, infrastructure and land regularization”, says the text.
“In the Senate, his work also focused heavily on public security, presiding over the Public Security Commission and leading important agendas, such as the end of temporary departures and the tightening of the fight against criminal factions. At the same time, he worked on economic, tax and federative issues, including the coordination that guaranteed approximately R$1.2 billion from the pre-salt mega auction.”
A Sheet analyzed the 12,115 speeches made by deputies at the Alerj tribune during Flávio’s four consecutive terms.
In recent years, the performance of the then state deputy in Rio was a reason for public wear and tear on the Bolsonaro clan due to investigations into suspected “cracks” in his office (which were), in addition to his and his actions.
Adjustments and retirement
In , Flávio defended from the tribune adjustments that would equalize the salaries of the Rio Fire Department and those of the corporations in the Federal District. The adjustment would be 187% for soldiers and 140% for colonels, according to a table prepared by him based on a proposal being processed in the Chamber that provided for an adjustment for the DF police.
In all these militias there are always one, two, three police officers who are from the community and count on the help of other colleagues in uniform to join forces and try to guarantee a minimum of security in the places where they live. There are a number of benefits to this. I, for example, would like to pay R$20, R$30, R$40 to avoid having my car stolen from my doorstep, to not run the risk of seeing a friend’s son go into drug trafficking, of having a son pushed into drugs
Six months later, in , he criticized from the gallery the bill 2886/2005, sent by the then governor Rosinha Garotinho to Alerj, which applied to the social security system of the state of Rio the one approved in 2003 by the government (PT).
He defined the governor’s measure as “another stab in the back of these already mistreated, cowed military public servants.”
In the same speech, he criticized the possibility of raising the minimum length of service for retirement of PMs and firefighters to 35 years. “We could have 65-year-old military police officers on the streets. Look how absurd,” he said.
Three years later, in , he defended a project by senator Paulo Paim (PT) that linked the earnings of INSS retirees and pensioners to the minimum wage.
“The federal deputy will position himself in favor and will work for the approval of this project in the Chamber of Deputies”, he stated when congratulating Paim.
In the same speech, he stated that Lula’s first measure in 2003 was “to stab public servants in the back, taxing the earnings of retirees in this country by 11%.”
I’ll repeat, the troops want a salary. The troops want a salary so they can have dignity and encouragement to provide an increasingly better service to our population
In , he opposed in the state court proposals that would increase the length of service required for retirement of PMs and firefighters from 30 to 35 years and increase the category’s social security contribution rate.
“If you go from 30 to 35 years of service, the tendency is that more police officers will die while on active duty,” he said.
“Suddenly, the idea is this: having fewer inactive officers because of the increase in deaths of active police officers. It’s a lack of sensitivity and humanity that’s scary.”
The vast majority of defenses for spending cuts that Flávio made in 16 years at Alerj were aimed at programs, groups or individuals with which the then state deputy had ideological disagreements.
In , he criticized from the rostrum the expenditure of R$228,000 by the State Secretariat for Human Rights of Rio on a same-sex marriage ceremony, which he classified as an “orgy with public money”.
In a speech by , he even demanded “a drastic downsizing of the machine” from then governor Luiz Fernando Pezão (PMDB). In the same statement, he opposed the idea of increasing civil servants’ social security contributions, from 11% to 14%, and the possible extinction of the permanent allowance.
Education was the dominant theme in four speeches, always in opposition to racial quotas in state universities.
“There’s no point in building a brick and mortar house on top of the sand because it will collapse; it has no foundation. There’s no point in spending time here discussing a demagogic law like this quota for black people, quota for I don’t know who, quota for disabled people. Soon it’s going to be quota for homosexuals, quota for Jews, quota for women”, he said in .
In , he said: “Such racial distinction was the basis used by Adolf Hitler, in the repugnant Nazi system, to indoctrinate his subjects, convincing them that the Aryan class was a superior race to the others.”
Health was the dominant theme of just three speeches. In , Flávio defended from the stand the expansion of the craniofacial anomalies treatment center maintained by the state government and proposed amendments to the budget for the program. In, he defended the large-scale implementation of a state contraception program, arguing that the measure would reduce SUS spending on unplanned pregnancies. In , he defended higher salaries for doctors.
In at least 12 of the 214 speeches at Alerj, Flávio nominally praised the 1964 military regime. Four of them were delivered on March 31, the date of the coup — in , , and .
I have taken this stance since my first day in office in this House in defense of the military and I make a point of coming to another March 31, 2010, to do my part — and in the language that is very common today — in resisting the inversion of values that our society lives today
In 2009, he read a manifesto from the gallery that classified the coup as a “democratic counter-revolution”, a reaction to an attempt to install “a communist regime along the lines of Cuba” in Brazil.
In , he saluted the Army from the tribune “for having prevented, since 1964, this country from being robbed and robbed by the leadership of the PT”. , defended the tribute that Jair Bolsonaro paid to Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra —declared in court proceedings as— in his .
The current economic platform for Flávio’s pre-candidacy foresees a fiscal adjustment of 2 points of GDP, correction of pensions, health and education only due to inflation and privatization of 95% of state-owned companies. The senator’s advisors refuted the information.
Flávio’s team also states that the senator “will continue to defend the strengthening of the police, the toughening of penalties and the firm fight against crime, in contrast to Lula’s irresponsible conduct, which relativizes crime.”
“The senator understands that the focus of the debate must be on the real problems faced by Brazilians, especially security, health, economy and quality of life of the population”, he says.
I think each person has their own body, has their own will. As long as you are of legal age, responsible for your actions, do what you want, what is in your head and what makes you happy. But I wouldn’t particularly like to see my son coming into the house and introducing his boyfriend to me. It’s one thing to respect a person’s sexuality, or sexual orientation. But we cannot want to impose this type of censorship on those who understand otherwise, or rather, the vast majority who understand differently from this minority. The normal thing is for a family to be like this: dad, mom and little son. It’s not the João and Maurício family, it’s not the Maria and Paula family.
Methodology
The report analyzed the 12,115 speeches made by 163 deputies in the rostrum of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro from 2003 to 2018, during Flávio’s four consecutive terms. The analysis considered speeches of the type “Discourse” by Alerj — a voluntary demonstration of up to ten minutes during the session, provided for in article 149, item 3, of the House’s internal regulations.
The speeches were classified into 11 thematic categories using a weighted dictionary of terms, calibrated based on statistical grouping. Flávio’s 214 speeches received binary markers generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and human review.
