The president of the chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), decided to postpone the vote on the anti-factionalism bill due to a lack of consensus on the text presented by the rapporteur, Rep. Guilherme Dirit (PP-SP), according to at least five leaders interviewed by the report.
Members of Lula’s government (Workers’ Party) and even opposition parliamentarians estimate that the new version of the project – the fourth version presented by the representative – still presents problems that need to be corrected. It was expected that the text would be voted on on Wednesday (12).
Government, center and opposition leaders asked Motta to postpone. Five right-wing governors also submitted the same request to the president of the chamber.
The CEOs of RJ, GO, MG, DF and SC indicated that they supported the Dirrett text, but still considered it insufficient and proposed a period of up to 30 days or until the end of the year to hear from more actors and vote on a more complete text, already in agreement with the Senate.
Rio Governor Claudio Castro said: “Although we all applaud the decision, we unanimously disagree with the speed of this project. There must be a project that meets the needs of the states. There is no point in implementing a project like this without listening to the states.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Dirit met with the benches of some parties, government representatives and the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Manuel Carlos de Almeida Neto, to discuss changes to the text before submitting its fourth version.
A leader in the center believes that the postponement decision is bad for all concerned and opens the way for criticism from public opinion. It is estimated that Dirit has been weakened and that the Chamber President appears to be having difficulties in leading the plenary session.
However, according to this leader, the government will also suffer wear and tear, but to a lesser extent, as Planalto has succeeded in influencing the public debate by betting on the rhetoric that the report protects politicians and hollows out the powers of the National Front.
This politician also says that the president of the chamber risks having his authority questioned, as he should have agreed in advance with the leaders what the strategy would be and draft a text that would have the support of the plenary session before presenting it this week.
However, Mota’s allies downplay these criticisms, noting that such twists and turns are common in the legislative process. They also say Mota responded to a request from all parties.
Earlier, during lunch with right-wing parliamentarians and conservatives on Wednesday, Derrett thanked him for inviting him to talk about “the maturity they will have” so that the text is not buried.
The rapporteur justified his retreat from equating the factions with terrorists, a measure that was defended by the right and criticized by Lula’s government, indicating that its text is what is possible in the face of a political agreement and the STF (Supreme Federal Court) will not declare it unconstitutional.
“Or we will continue to insist on the issue of terrorism and bury this project. (…) We will not miss this opportunity to give priority to the political war,” Dayrit said.
Ministers and secretaries from the Secretariat of Communications, the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, the Civil House and the Ministry of Justice met during the afternoon at the Palacio do Planalto to define strategies related to the proposal.
After the meeting, Corporate Relations Minister Glessy Hoffman stated that more time would be needed to correct points in the text that the government considered essential.
Among opposition representatives, Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Sosthenes Kavalkanti (RJ) also defended postponing the vote. The opposition was not completely satisfied with the third version presented by Dirit on Tuesday evening (11), mainly due to the rapporteur’s acceptance of the government’s demands. The leader says that the Communist Party does not abandon equating organizations with terrorists.
The installation of Antifaction PL increased the political dispute between the government and the opposition over public security after the police operation against the Comando Vermelho in Rio, which left 121 people dead.
The proposal was sent by Palacio do Planalto, but Lula’s government ended up resenting Mota’s decision to hand over the report to Dirit, Secretary of Public Security in the (Republican) government of Tarcisio de Freitas in São Paulo. The order was called the legal framework for combating organized crime in Brazil.
The first version of Dirrett’s text, from the perspective of government supporters, opened a gap to weaken national sovereignty and the work of the federal police, which the rapporteur classifies as a false narrative.
The government and Labor began to defend the National Front and link the anti-factional project to the Belendagem Electoral Committee, and in the face of public fatigue, Dirrett abandoned the more controversial measures and said that he would maintain the competence of the National Front – which was seen as a victory for the left.
However, the complicated situation continued this Wednesday.
For example, Glessi listed four main points of disagreement regarding Durrett’s Third Opinion: criminal type, legislative style, stifling of factions, and decapitalization of the federal police—although he backed down on limiting the role of the federal police, the rapporteur continued to drain the corporation of federal funds.
He added, “We mentioned in the project that these factions lose their assets from the moment the investigation begins, and in the report this will not happen until the final ruling is issued.”
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