The resignation of Carla Zambelli from her mandate, already revoked by the courts, is the result of a maneuver between the President of the Chamber and the defense of the convicted person. The idea was to mitigate the damage for both parties: the deputies would not aggravate the wear and tear caused by non-compliance with a court decision and the lawyers would strive to preserve the client’s political rights.
It didn’t work, as happens with poorly made gambiarras. The misdeed was entered into the annals of Parliament and Zambelli, imprisoned in Italy, will remain out of the picture for as long as she serves time for two criminal convictions.
Given the circumstances and proportions, the case refers to the indictments of two presidents who received different treatment.
Fernando Collor tried to preserve his rights by resigning at the last minute, but did not succeed because the process was already underway in the Senate. Dilma Rousseff did not even need to resort to this ploy: the House trampled on the Constitution to keep her able to run in the next elections, in which Minas Gerais polls denied her the mandate of senator.
The conclusion is that political cronyism shortcuts sooner or later run up against the limits of the law or the will of the electorate for one reason or another.
Alexandre Ramagem, convicted and fugitive, would follow the path of his colleague: acquittal before the Chamber which would apply the same weight and measure to him. Before the Supreme Court, he should resign. Doubly useless, due to the automatic ineligibility resulting from the conviction and stay abroad.
Zambelli and Ramagem face extradition. Theses are emerging according to which the Italian and American governments would take into account the complacency of the Chamber in rejecting Brazil’s requests.
It turns out that there is no correspondence between the positions of the Brazilian Parliament and the decisions of foreign executives. Even if they are not removed, they will remain outside of Brazilian politics, which will have fulfilled the purpose of the law.
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