After Lira's speech, Chamber leaders cancel scheduled meeting with Haddad and Padilha

Amid tension between the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the government, leaders of the House canceled the meeting scheduled for yesterday afternoon with the ministers of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha . The meeting would serve to outline the agenda in Congress with the resumption of legislative activities and discuss the content of the provisional measure that puts an end to the payroll tax exemption policy.

According to the Estadão/Broadcast, there was no climate for the meeting given the points of conflict between the government and Lira. The politician from Alagoas would not be present at the meeting. The expectation is that the meeting will take place after Carnival, when parliamentarians return in force to Brasília.

The day before yesterday, Lira took advantage of the opening session of the legislative year to give a tough message to the federal government. He demanded respect for what he called “signed agreements” and said that approval of Executive proposals in 2023 “will be the keynote for 2024”, as long as the “example of good policy and honor with the commitments assumed” prevails.

The deputy stated that the Union Budget “belongs to everyone, not just the Executive”. He also criticized what he called “technical bureaucracy” in the distribution of resources and said that deputies and senators have more knowledge of the needs of each municipality to define where the money goes.

Yesterday, the government leader in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), said that it was his initiative to cancel the meeting and minimized Lira's speech. The PT member stated that he found “nothing special” in the speech of the president of the Chamber. “Scheduling the meeting and the speech are different things. Our idea is, after carnival, to pacify a meeting. The minister is evaluating with the two presidents of the Chamber and the Senate”, he declared.

ON EVE

The emphatic tone of Lira's speech was included on the eve of the reading of the statement, according to the report. The message was given amid new tensions between the government and the Legislature since the end of last year.

The Lula government and Congress are disputing the solution to a package of measures that affect the interests of both parties in 2024. Lula vetoed the payment schedule for amendments for this year in the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) and R$ 5.6 billion in committee amendments in the 2024 Budget. Parliamentarians threaten to overturn both vetoes.

Furthermore, the government signed a provisional measure to reburden 17 sectors of the economy that benefited from the payroll tax relief, contrary to the Legislature – which overturned the president's veto.

'WIRELESS PHONE'

The tension between Lira and Padilha is also cited as a reason for a more “energetic” speech. Centrão leaders claim that Padilha acts as a “wireless telephone”, which passes one message to the Legislature and another to Lula, violating agreements, especially regarding the release of amendments and appointments for positions.

Haddad avoided commenting on Lira's speech yesterday. When asked by journalists, the Finance Minister was succinct: “Everything is fine, everything will be fine.” “I wasn’t the one who canceled (the meeting with deputies),” he said.

The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.