This Thursday (21) he overturned the president’s (PT) vetoes on points of the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) and decided to release it during the election period, in addition to the access of defaulting municipalities to transfers from the Union.
In total, four vetoes were overturned in a joint session of Congress. The basis of the Lula administration built an agreement to overthrow three of them. The PT was only against the release of donations, but, due to lack of agreement, the government allowed allied parties to vote in favor.
This release opens loopholes for the payment of non-binding parliamentary amendments, which are subject to restrictions during the campaign period. Critics of the project say the text is generic and does not define the types of donations allowed.
The approval occurred two days after another move by the Legislature to meet demands from parties and politicians in an election year.
On Tuesday (19), the one that renegotiates party debts for up to 15 years, prevents the suspension of resources from the party fund during the election semester and opens a loophole for mass shooting of messages. The text, in this case, will still need to pass the Senate.
With the vetoes overturned this Thursday in Congress, authorization for defaulting municipalities with up to 65,000 inhabitants to enter into agreements to receive federal resources comes into effect again; the permission for public authorities to make donations of goods, money or other benefits during the electoral period and the possibility for the Union to send budgetary resources for the construction and maintenance of state and municipal highways if they integrate modes of transport or productive flow.
The authorization of the donation of goods during electoral periods was reestablished with votes from 281 deputies and 48 senators, in the face of resistance from parties more closely linked to the government. The other three vetoes, in light of the agreement, were overturned with scores that exceeded 425 votes from the Chamber and 65 from the Senate — out of a total of 513 and 81 parliamentarians, respectively.
The government leader in Congress, senator (PT-AP), said he regretted the overturning of the veto that modifies the electoral law, but highlighted that there was agreement with the government in rejecting the others to respond to a request from the municipalities.
“It is a device in the electoral legislation to preserve arms parity, to have equal conditions between candidates. We respect the position of Congress, but we defend that this veto in particular be maintained”, he said. “In practice, a candidate for federal deputy supported by a mayor can benefit from another candidate who has an electoral base in this municipality and does not have that relationship with the mayor”, he added.
According to Hendrick Pinheiro, law professor at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), article 95 of the LDO allows, based on the Elections Law, for donations with charges to take place three months before the election. For this transfer of resources to be possible, the entity receiving the donation must provide compensation.
The professor, however, thinks it is possible that the constitutionality of overturning this specific veto could be questioned based on the principle of exclusivity in budget law. Also called the “purity rule”, it prohibits Budget rules from dealing with other topics.
The president of , (-AP), highlighted that the overturning of vetoes this week was a gesture to municipal managers. Politicians in the center tend to rely on a network of allied mayors to campaign “on the cutting edge” and obtain the so-called “structure vote”.
The text of the LDO that came into force again only determines the need for a counterpart from the municipalities. This can be done through another donation or commitment to a specific project.
This week the March of Mayors takes place in Brasília.
According to Alcolumbre, “in recent months, most leaders have been contacted by members of the municipal Executive and Legislative branches about the importance of implementing this veto.”
He said that 92% of Brazilian municipalities have less than 65 thousand inhabitants and that 3,200 cities are in default. “The current situation of budgetary and fiscal challenges that city halls have been facing makes this session extremely important.”
At the end of the vote, Alcolumbre celebrated the result and said he was a municipalist. “I am very happy to conduct this vote in Congress with the support of my colleagues so that we can effectively do what Brazil expects of us: work to improve people’s quality of life, reduce inequalities and strengthen the Republic.”
There are still 40 vetoes to the LDO pending analysis by Congress. Alcolumbre stated that he would call a new joint session in around 20 to 30 days to vote on the remaining sections removed by Lula from the Budget Law.
One of the vetoes that must be analyzed, for example, prevented the increase in the party fund.
