The president asked for a survey of positions appointed by the center in the federal machine, aiming for specific retaliations against those who collaborated in the government’s recent defeats in Congress. The president of , , despite having been the great articulator of the Planalto’s setbacks, should be spared at first.
The defeats in question are the appointment of the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, to the STF (Supreme Federal Court), and President Lula’s veto of the dosimetry project, both at the end of April. reduces the sentences of those convicted of attempted coup d’état, including that of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
The order is that the dismissals be made without fanfare, in a trickle and in minor positions, which are at the top of public bodies. Planalto considers that an “exoneration” would be the same as printing a receipt for the defeats in the Official Gazette of the Union.
The survey is still being carried out by the Institutional Relations Secretariat, but some names have already started to be dismissed. Names are analyzed on a case-by-case basis to avoid collateral damage.
According to members of Palácio do Planalto, the initial resignations affected representatives of parliamentarians who said they were in government, but were already in a process of distancing themselves from Lula and voted in favor of overturning the veto on the Dosimetry Law, on the 30th.
Unlike the rejection of Messiah, the overturn of the veto had an open vote. With the design of the platforms in the states becoming increasingly clear, the Planalto wants to dehydrate those who will certainly not help the president in his bid for re-election.
The calculation is that the “on the fly” exchange of nominees by parliamentarians who will not be with Lula for names of allies should help the government in the so-called “structure vote”. For mayors, it becomes more interesting to support parliamentarians aligned with the Planalto when there are allies in key positions to release resources and carry out works, for example.
With Alcolumbre, the stance is a little different. At first, interlocutors say, Lula was irritated and wanted to extirpate from the federal machine those appointed by the president of the Senate and other names from the center and base who collaborated with Messias’ defeat. It was the first time in more than 130 years that the House rejected a nomination to the STF.
Lula, allies point out, ended up following his maxim that it is better to “sleep with a problem and wake up with a solution” than to make hasty decisions. The government saw the defeat of Messias, because of the centrão’s action with the opposition to block Banco Master’s CPI, and decided to maintain bridges with Alcolumbre.
After the president of the Senate informed emissaries from Planalto that he wanted a personal meeting with Lula to close the Messias case, the government appointed a nominee from Alcolumbre to a board of directors at Codevasf (Companhia de Desenvolvimento dos Vales do São Francisco e do Parnaíba).
The appointment of Marcio Adalberto Andrade as director of the Development and Infrastructure Area at Codevasf was agreed even when the government’s political articulation was led by Gleisi Hoffmann (PT), who left the ministry to run for the Senate in Paraná. The new minister, José Guimarães (PT), maintained the agreement reached by his predecessor.
In parallel, the government also accelerated the commitment to parliamentary amendments from state benches, mainly allied ones. For Amapá, there were R$249.2 million in amendments after Messias’ defeat. For Alcolumbre, R$21.7 million was committed to individual amendments.
These gestures translate Lula’s order, who finally said “get on with your life” to his allies, ordering the maintenance of bridges with the senator. The government depends on the goodwill of the president of the Senate to approve important proposals.
For example, the PECs (Proposed Amendments to the Constitution) (Single Social Assistance System) and the . The project that regulates the exploration of critical minerals is also awaiting analysis by senators.
The government’s legislative priority for the election will also need to pass through the Senate. The PEC is in the Chamber and should be voted on by the end of May. In other words, Planalto will need all the help to also approve it in the Senate by June, a month that is naturally more turbulent due to the intensification of the pre-campaign and the start of the World Cup.
