PEC hangs in the Senate, and PT scales Jaques Wagner for articulation

Without a solid political base, the PT saw the Transition PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) stalled in the Senate this week —considered by the party as essential to release expenses outside the spending ceiling and enable the fulfillment of promises made during the election campaign .

At the risk of seeing the project dehydrated in Congress, the party changed its strategy and set up a task force to avoid losses and guarantee approval by the end of the year.

The difficulties are accentuated by the absence of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) from Brasilia, who will postpone his return to the capital —previously scheduled for this Wednesday (23)— after throat surgery performed in São Paulo on Sunday (20) ). Doctors recommended that Lula preserve his voice in the next few days, and collaborators recognize that he will hardly spare himself in Brasília.

To try to reverse the difficulties, the PT activated the senator, former minister and former governor of Bahia Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). Because of the traffic he has with parties of the center and the base of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), he was tasked with strengthening the articulation by sewing the support of that wing.

Jaques will be part of a provisional coordination office, a function that was also attributed to other PT members, such as Senator José Guimarães (CE) and PT leader in the Chamber, Reginaldo Lopes (MG). Deputy elected Lindbergh Farias (RJ) and deputy Márcio Macedo (SE) will also be part of the group.

Before the task force, the articulation was concentrated on the elected senator Wellington Dias (PT-PI).

But Lula’s interlocutors received reports of complaints about the lack of dialogue. The party’s assessment is that the transition team needs to adjust the articulation, which was focused on allied benches and the presidents of the Senate and House.

The difficulty in moving forward with the PEC even led the PT to postpone a meeting that was scheduled between the party’s national president, Gleisi Hoffmann, and deputies from the federation (which brings together PT, PV and PCdoB). The meeting was scheduled for Tuesday night.

The main impasse in the Senate is about the expiry date for withdrawing Bolsa Família from the spending cap. The PT has already decided that it will establish a four-year period in the PEC (instead of the proposal originally presented to party leaders, which had an indefinite period) — but even this period faces resistance, including from potential allies (such as the PSD).

Petistas claim that the scenario for the PEC in the Chamber is more promising than in the Senate — an inversion of the political framework initially outlined. Lula’s allies reported that, according to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), there is a tendency to approve the text with a four-year term.

As in the Senate, however, there is an obstacle in relation to the deadline for the execution of extratete expenses. Although there is no consensus on the benches, parties such as Podemos and PSD defend that the measure is valid only for 2023 and see four years as an unnecessary blank check.

They agree with the justification that the future government was not responsible for the 2023 budget proposal and, therefore, needs to breach the expenditure limit next year. For later years, however, they advocate that the party adjust the Budget to find room for the value of the social program.

In a meeting on Monday night (21st), Gleisi asked parliamentarians for more effort in the articulation under penalty of not being able to approve the PEC until the end of the year.

The move comes after a series of delays in defining the text in relation to what had been signaled by the transition team, and attempts by Congress to sign alternative texts with spending allowances lower than those defended by the PT (which seeks BRL 198 billion outside the spending cap).

In recent days, PSDB senators Alessandro Vieira (SE) and Tasso Jereissati (CE) presented proposals that would give Lula permission to spend BRL 70 billion and BRL 80 billion outside the ceiling, respectively. This is also the position of part of Podemos — one of the largest benches in the House.

Gleisi’s guidance is for conversations to take place with all senators. The assessment is that dissent in benches of center parties —even if small— could compromise the progress of the PEC.

The problems already threaten to change the voting schedule previously signaled by Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). This Tuesday (22), he avoided committing to dates or a quick discussion (with deliberation in committee and plenary on the same day).

There was an expectation that the final text would be presented this week and voted on next week. However, now he and PT members avoid committing to forecasts for the PEC.

Pacheco made it clear that the text does not yet have a consensus in Congress regarding the amount of fiscal space to be opened and the duration of the measure, and he also recalled that the best fiscal anchor for the country is still undefined. Still, he said he believes the PEC will be approved this year.

The Senate president also said that “it is already clear” that the proposal without a defined deadline, the version presented by the PT to party leaders last week, “does not find resonance in the National Congress”.

He defended, however, the need to find a solution for the payment of Bolsa Família now and the debate on the new fiscal rule replacing the spending cap to be left for later, as the transition team wants.

Lira, president of the Chamber, pointed out that the deadline is short for the appreciation of the proposal. “The PEC is included in a draft that should start to be discussed by the Senate. It still doesn’t have the text, the author, the signatures. What we have is a small amount of time, practically 17, 20 working days, to discuss a text like that”, said this Monday.