Lula obtains “in extremis” the approval of Congress for his ministerial reform

The senators accompanied the vote in favor of the text given the day before by the deputies, before the deadline expired at midnight.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva avoided what it would have been his first big defeat. The conservative Brazilian Congress validated its ministerial reform on Thursday, hours before the deadline for its approval.

Without the approval of the Legislature, the government structure would have lost 17 of its 37 portfolios (31 ministries and 6 bodies with ministry status), including Planning, Indigenous Peoples, Racial Equality, Transportation, or Industrial. That is, it would have become to the same executive conformation of the previous government, commanded by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.

This Thursday, the senators supported the text with 51 votes in favor, 19 against and one abstention. A faster process than the one that the deputies did the day before, where after more than 12 hours of heated debate and assignments by Lulismo, it was approved by a comfortable majority of 337 votes in favor, 125 against and one abstention.

Assignments and investments

In order to obtain approval, in a Congress dominated by right-wing parties and with a great weight of the Bolsonista opposition, the government had to release almost 350 million dollars in “parliamentary amendments”, resources for investments in the states and municipalities of the interested legislators. A very typical practice of Brazilian politics.

But that was not the only cession that Lula had to make, who lacks sufficient strength in the Legislature to carry out your projects without anything in return.

Less power for Environment and Indigenous Affairs

Days ago, the president had to accept changes proposed by legislators, such as the proposal to remove powers from the Environment and Indigenous Affairs portfolios.

The management of the cadastre was removed from the first portfolio, where all rural properties must be registered and which is used to map land invasions and control of deforested areas.

To the second, he stripped her of the power to demarcate the lands of the original peoples to pass the competition to the portfolio of Justice.

This provoked great disgust from the ministers Marina Silva and Sonia Guajajara, who strongly attacked these modifications. imposed by the powerful agribusiness benchone of the great pillars of Bolsonarismo.

A blow to the indigenous

The legislators also conditioned the approval of Lula’s ministerial structure to the fact that the pro-government representatives pledged not to obstruct the approval of the “PL (project of law) of the Temporary Framework”, which provides for the expulsion of indigenous groups in case of not being able to prove that they were in a certain territory before 1988.

The Chamber already approved the project a few days ago and now it must go through the senatein what is indeed a defeat for Lula, who retook the demarcations of indigenous reserves paralyzed during the Bolsonaro years.

In any case, the government and the indigenous and environmental organizations have their hopes placed in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which next week will resume the trial of the ‘temporary framework’ thesis. His decision in this regard could establish jurisprudence.