PEC that expands benefits opposes PT, from Lula, to PSB, from Alckmin

The PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that increases government spending by more than BRL 41 billion on the eve of the elections exposed a fissure in the opposition to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the Chamber of Deputies.

Meeting on Monday (11) with former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), leaders of allied parties (PSB, PSOL, PC do B, PV, Rede e Solidariedade) pledged to collect signatures to postpone proceedings. of the proposal for up to 20 days, time for analyzing its financial viability.

Under the Constitution, a proposal that entails an increase in expenditure or a waiver of revenue is suspended for up to 20 days, for examination of its compatibility with the tax regime, if an application is presented with one-third of the signatures of the legislature. Together, the parties that form an alliance in support of Lula’s candidacy have 110 federal deputies.

So far, however, the opposition has gathered only 91 of the 103 signatures needed to postpone the processing of the proposal, which increases the value of Auxílio Brasil by R$200, increases Auxílio Gás and creates aid for truck drivers and taxi drivers.

The parties of the Lula-Alckmin ticket, PT and PSB, would add up to 80 signatures, with 56 and 24 names, respectively. On Monday, during a meeting with Lula, the national president of the PSB, Carlos Siqueira, said, however, that the party’s bench resists endorsing the request.

In spite of being in favor of the request that would postpone the processing of the proposal, Guilherme Boulos, who is a pre-candidate of the PSOL for the Chamber, went so far as to say that voting against it would be “a shot in the foot”.

The president of the PV, José Luiz Penna, suggested that the opposition present a counter-proposal, worth R$800, for Auxílio Brasil, but the idea was discarded on the grounds that the parties themselves originally proposed the R$600 now resurrected by the government.

According to participants at the meeting, Lula only repeated the speech already made publicly, recommending that voters receive the benefits, but vote for him for the Presidency of the Republic.

The PDT, on the other hand, did not endorse the request, although its pre-candidate for the presidency, Ciro Gomes, called the project electoral fraud. The party has 19 federal deputies.

One of the articulators of the request, Congressman Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP) says that some opposition parliamentarians agree that the PEC is unconstitutional, but say they cannot vote against it for fear of electoral attrition. “It’s as if they were only willing to enter the battlefield with the guarantee of not getting hit. That makes it easy to be a war fighter,” he says.

According to Orlando Silva, this PEC is a trap. “It presents itself as an offer of help to the poorest but in fact it only aims to influence the election. Paying benefits for three months is an attempt, literally, to buy votes”.

In Orlando Silva’s opinion, in approving the PEC, the Chamber would repeat a serious mistake by the Senate, isolating the Federal Supreme Court (STF), according to him, “the last line of defense of the Constitution”.

“This PEC is unconstitutional. And the STF must declare this when provoked. Bolsonaro knows this, but he makes a case for it, to maintain the discourse that ‘he wants to govern but the Supreme Court won’t let him'”, he adds.

Former PT president and communication coordinator for Lula’s campaign, Rui Falcão (SP) calls the PEC proposal a deception. “Our deputies will present a request for us to have at least twenty days to examine the financial aspects that this PEC of deception implies”, he says.