The PT drew up a plan this Thursday (17th) to talk to all the senators of the CCJ (Commission on Constitution and Justice) about the Transition PEC, the main bet of the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), for the payment of Bolsa Familia.
The task was divided between PT leader in the Senate, Paulo Rocha (PT-PA), Senator-elect Wellington Dias (PT-PI) —scheduled by Lula to negotiate the 2023 budget— and Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA ).
Rocha, for example, had the mission to speak with the leader of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ). In an interview with Sheet, Portinho said that the text was being discussed in a “PT brotherhood”, without dialogue. After the criticism, the two spoke by phone on Wednesday (16).
Other leaders made similar complaints to the president of the CCJ, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP). The senator told Lula’s interlocutors that many senators criticized the conduct of the political articulation, and are feeling excluded because they were not contacted.
PT’s plan is to speak individually with all members of the CCJ and take advantage of the concentrated effort of the Senate, next week, to seek out the other senators, including the president’s eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).
The idea is to make it clear that the debate, from now on, will not be restricted to the PT, and that the text presented this Wednesday is just a sketch. Each senator, according to one of Lula’s interlocutors in Congress, will be treated as an “institution”.
After delivering the draft to the general rapporteur for the budget, senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), the elected vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), said on Wednesday that there was no PEC, but “a proposal, a draft “.
Although other senators are helping in the articulation, such as Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG), Carlos Fávaro (PSD-MT) and the president of the CCJ himself, petistas assess that the parliamentarians also make a point of talking to the group that is around Lula .
The PT also has the support of Senator Simone Tebet (MDB-MS) for articulation in the Senate. Tebet —who supported Lula in the second round and is now part of the transition team in the area of social development— was president of the CCJ before Alcolumbre and is now a full member of the commission.
Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) said on Tuesday (15) that it would be possible to vote on the PEC in the last week of November. The intention is to approve the text in the CCJ and in the Senate plenary on the same day.
On another articulation front, the transition team also decided to create a group with leaders of the House and Senate of allied parties to discuss the approval of the PEC. The group should meet next Wednesday (23).
The measure was announced during the meeting of the political council this Thursday, which was attended by Alckmin. Parliamentarians claim that the intention is to set up a kind of “mixed commission” to negotiate the text with deputies and senators.
The bill presented this Wednesday removes the Auxílio Brasil —which will once again be called Bolsa Família— from the spending ceiling, a fiscal rule that limits the growth of expenses. The text does not stipulate an expiration date for the measure, which leaves the door open for it to be permanent.
PT members know that an important wing of Congress defends restricting the validity of the exception to 2023, the first year of the Lula government. For this reason, PT allies admit negotiating a four-year term, which is seen as a compromise to wave to sectors that fear a “blank check”.
On Tuesday, the Panel showed that Lula defended the four-year term for the president of the Senate in a private conversation in Egypt during COP27, the United Nations climate conference.
Pacheco would have reinforced to the president-elect that the ceiling is an “achievement” for the country and that Congress is in favor of maintaining the fiscal rule. However, as the senator from Minas Gerais pointed out, the parliamentarians would approve the withdrawal of the Bolsa Família value from the ceiling for four years.
The first signature on the text of the PEC will be from the general rapporteur of the Budget, Marcelo Castro, who has been working for the approval of the text and defended that the amount of R$ 175 billion stay outside the spending ceiling.
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