Former Brazilian VP Mourão on Lula’s government: ‘They want to treat the military as second class’

Former VP and now Senator Hamilton Mourão (Republicans) said that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government wants to treat the military as “second-class citizens.

The senator’s speech is a response to the PT party’s project to bar active military personnel from political positions.

“The legislation is obvious: if the military is going to run for elective office, he will have to join a political party and take a leave of absence,” said Mourão in an interview published in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Sunday, 19th.

“Ah, an active military cannot hold a government position. Why?” he questioned.

“If you have a person in the Army, Navy, or Air Force with specific competence for a position, are you going to stop using that servant that we, the nation, trained and got the means for him to study and improve himself?” he added.

About the PT’s intention to modify article 142 of the Constitution to end the Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO), Mourão said that the idea is “just to set fire to the playground.”

“The constitutional mission is clear. The Guarantee of Law and Order is by the initiative of any of the constituted powers. So withdrawing it won’t change anything because there is no other capable force,” he explained.

“It’s no use dreaming about a national guard or who knows what because this will never get off the drawing board.