by Bianca Oliveira
SAN PAOLO DEL BRASILE – In an interview with Dire news agency, the political scientist and professor at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Sérgio Praça, stated that the victory of Arthur Lira, for the presidency of the Lower Chamber, and Rodrigo Pacheco, for the Senate, “can be a new beginning for Bolsonaro government ”.
According to the expert, the election of candidates allied to the President of the Republic has two main advantages: blocking an impeachment process and restoring a dialogue between the Executive and Legislative branches.
“First of all, Arthur Lira will hardly open an impeachment process. Second, he may become the negotiator for funds and positions that the president lacks, basically someone who will help him make this connection between parliamentarians and the Executive in general”, explains Praça.
Lira and Pacheco agree on some priorities for voting in the coming months: 2021 Budget, the emergency Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) and economic reforms. The main challenge for the new leaders will be to reconcile new emergency aid with a constitutionally mandated spending cap, a fiscal anchor that limits government spending to the previous year’s expenses adjusted for inflation.
“It is an immense challenge. The fact is that: between maintaining the mandatory spending cap and making the aid, the second one will be chosen. Keeping the two together will mean cutting a lot from almost everything else and I don’t know if that is politically viable. For me, since the beginning of the pandemic, the spending cap is experiencing a slow death ”, says the FGV professor.
The expectation is also that the new leaders of the National Congress will proceed with the major reforms promised by the economic team of Minister Paulo Guedes, and strongly awaited by the Brazilian business community, such as the Tax and Administrative Reform. However, combating the pandemic will still be a priority in the first half of 2021.
“The command of the Lower Chamber with Arthur Lira and the command of the Senate with Pacheco are good things for the economic reforms,