Hugo Motta does not control the Chamber of Deputies, he has no influence over his peers – in many cases, not even respect – and he does not even command the legislative police who, in the face of the confusion the day before yesterday in plenary, attacked journalists. He is considered by his own peers to be the weakest House Speaker in recent times.
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Elected by a mega-coalition from the PL to the PT, sponsored by his predecessor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), Motta has spent this year trying to find a balance between the demands of his sponsors, like Eduardo Cunha and Ciro Nogueira, from Lira and the Palácio do Planalto. He didn’t succeed. In his quest to please the various masters, he left none satisfied.
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His limitations in commanding the House were evident in different episodes. From the start, during the campaign, he promised amnesty – or ruled it out – depending on who you spoke to. Once elected, he reached an agreement with the President of the Republic, but took detours without reaching an agreement. This was the case during the vote on the OIF, the Blindagem PEC and the emergency amnesty. To respond to different interests, he suspended the indictment of project deputies, such as that of the persistent debtor.
The day before yesterday, his incapacity worsened. Motta managed to make a succession of errors in the crisis opened with the arrival of deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ). Braga should not have copied the August mutineers’ manual and prevented the work of the majority by sitting in Motta’s chair. But it was Motta himself who set a precedent by ending the opposition mutiny. One of them, Zé Trovão (PL-SC), declared:
— Thirty days (suspension) is nothing.
By trying to speak harshly with the left-wing MP after touching the right’s head, he created a crisis. In an authoritarian act, he ordered the TV Câmara signal to be cut. He didn’t want images showing his chair, once again, occupied. That didn’t help. GloboNews film journalist Walter Rocha filmed the protest. Motta redoubled his efforts and decided to expel the press, at a time when parliamentarians do not let go of their cell phones. Of course, that didn’t work. The liberation of the chair, at least in the literal sense, was broadcast live.
Motta capped the day by voting to reduce the sentences of those who plotted against democracy, another order from Centrão’s godfathers, terrified by a possible candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro. In a gesture for the government and in the best “one foot in every boat” style, he initiated the impeachment of Carla Zambelli, Alexandre Ramagem and Eduardo Bolsonaro. The day before, he had met ministers Fernando Haddad and Gleisi Hoffmann, but had not said a single word on these projects. Once again, it didn’t fit.
Lira retained command of the House, not only thanks to the tsunami of amendments, but also because she respects agreements well, which is fundamental in politics. Without keeping his word and without trying to please the different sides, Motta is going through a credibility crisis. It is more and more about Severino Cavalcante, president of the Chamber who was the protagonist of a scandal involving a Casa restaurant, and less and less about Ulysses Guimarães.
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