03/23/2024 – 16:37
Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro filed a lawsuit in the Special Civil Court of the Federal District for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to recant after the furniture that was supposedly missing from the Palace da Alvorada were found in his official residence. The couple is also asking for compensation of R$20,000 for moral damages. Palácio do Planalto was contacted by Estadão, but has not yet returned.
The 261 items were located by the government last year, 10 months after they were declared “disappearing”. At the beginning of 2022, shortly after taking office, Lula and first lady Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja, accused the disappearance of objects after the departure of Bolsonaro and Michelle from Alvorada. They also publicized the poor state of conservation that they claimed the presidential residence received.
In the action filed this Friday, the 22nd, the Bolsonaro couple asks for compensation to serve as a “pedagogical measure”. If the request is granted by the courts, the money must be donated to Instituto do Carinho, a charitable institution located in Brasília, which welcomes children in situations of social vulnerability.
Jair and Michelle also want Lula to recant “in the same proportion as the damage he caused”, which includes an official press conference at Palácio do Alvorada and a retraction “in front of the communication vehicle GloboNews and in the official communication channels of the federal government ”.
The specific request for a retraction by the television channel occurs because the first lady gave an exclusive interview to the vehicle, on January 18, opening Alvorada to show the state in which the facilities were found after the couple's arrival.
“It is nothing new for anyone, given the countless videos that appear in the news and social networks, that the defendant (Lula), apparently, is uncomfortable – a lot – with the people of the authors (Jair and Michelle Bolsonaro). Therefore, all he can do is yell and say untruths about them”, says the action.
Information about the location of the items was published by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and confirmed by Estadão this Wednesday, 20. The Presidency's Social Communication Secretariat (Secom) stated that the items were found in “various premises” within the Palácio da Alvorada. When asked what these dependencies were, the department reported that the objects were “scattered” around the property, without detailing the locations.
“The start of the conference took place in November 2022 and, initially, 261 assets had not been located. At the beginning of 2023, a new conference was held which found that 83 items were missing. The work was only completed in September last year, when all the goods were found in different areas of the official residence. In other words, there was a disregard for where these furniture were located, requiring an effort to locate them all again”, says the note.
The absence of furniture served as justification for the government to purchase new items for the president's residence. In December last year, a survey carried out by the Estadão showed that the federal government spent R$26.8 million on renovations and the purchase of new furniture, materials and household items for the presidential palaces in Brasília in 2023.
In a technical note signed on February 2 last year to justify the purchase of the new items, the Presidency cited that the “lack of furniture” put Lula and Janja at risk, who were “exposed” when living in private properties. The document also included images from an interview with the first lady on the closed TV channel GloboNewswhere she denounced the wear and tear at Alvorada.
“The lack of appropriate furniture in the Palace facilities means that the President and his family are exposed to private properties. Certainly, in order for them to leave the hotel and occupy the aforementioned official residence, it is necessary, at the very least, and as a matter of urgency, to reestablish the minimum conditions of habitability of the intimate space, without prejudice to the restoration of various areas of the building. ”, states the technical note.
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