RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, April 28th, President Jair Bolsonaro again contested the focus of the Senate’s Covid CPI (Parliamentary Inquiry Committee), established to investigate the federal government’s actions and omissions of in the pandemic, as well as federal transfers to states and municipalities.
When speaking to supporters outside the Alvorada Palace, Bolsonaro once again promoted chloroquine treatment and said that he wants to be the last Brazilian to be immunized.
“You see: what will this CPI investigate? I granted them money. In total, it was more than R$700 billion, emergency aid in between. Many stole money, embezzled,” Bolsonaro said, in reference to mayors and governors.
“Now, a CPI to investigate my conduct? If I was in favor of chloroquine or not. If I have the new virus, I’m going to take it again, I was fine in less than 24 hours, just like millions of people,” continued the president, despite no scientific evidence so far that the drug he advocates is useful in fighting the disease.
Bolsonaro said that the committee must summon mayors and governors or the CPI will be an “out of season Carnaval.”
“Will the CPI call [mayors and governors] or will it want to make it a Carnaval out of season? They are going to get it wrong. Those who are well-intentioned, there are well-intentioned people there, people who, not that they are defending me, they are speaking the truth, but there is one or another there who only want to make waves,” he said.
Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG), in turn, used his social networks to report a conversation with Bolsonaro, in which he asked for the maintenance of “an environment of cooperation between the (separate) Powers.”
“I spoke with President Bolsonaro about the importance of maintaining an environment of cooperation between the Powers and unity of purpose to overcome the health crisis and resume growth with measures to generate employment and administrative and tax reforms,” he wrote.
The day before, Pacheco had been called “irresponsible” and “ungrateful” by the president’s son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Republicanos-RJ), for allowing the establishment of the CPI. To interlocutors, Pacheco said hours later that he would not react to Flávio’s words.
The parliamentary inquiry committee was established in the Senate on Tuesday, April 27th, confirming in its most important posts independent deputies or others in opposition to the government.
In a defeat for the Planalto Palace, Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) was appointed rapporteur by the president-elect of the collegiate, Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), after repeated attempts by Bolsonaro’s allies to undermine the CPI, which will have an initial duration of 90 days – which may be extended for an equal period.
Soon after taking office, Renan delivered a harsh speech with messages to the government, attacks on the denialism during the pandemic and the argument that the guilty exist and must be “symbollically” punished.
On Wednesday, when leaving the Alvorada, Bolsonaro attended a meeting of the anti-Covid committee, but did not appear for the press statement. Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, in turn, had to answer journalists about the CPI.
“The CPI, that is an attribution of the Parliament. If they summon me, I go there. And I will openly discuss what I have been doing at the Ministry of Health,” Queiroga said.
“We are going to contribute to Brazilian society, we are going to provide the information that the senators want. We are all together in the goal of confronting the pandemic,” said the minister.
The ministers of health should be summoned to the CPI in chronological order. The first, who should testify next week, is Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who headed the portfolio at the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020.
Still outside the Alvorada Palace, Bolsonaro again said that he will only be immunized “when the last Brazilian takes the vaccine.” “I am head of state, I have to set an example. My example is this: since there isn’t enough for everyone yet, the whole world doesn’t have a vaccine yet, step ahead of me.”
The statement was made alongside the Minister of the Civil House, General Luiz Eduardo Ramos.
The day before, Ramos said in a meeting that he took the Covid-19 vaccine in secret and that Bolsonaro’s life is at risk. In order not to lose the president to the coronavirus, the aide said he is trying to persuade him to take the vaccine.
Bolsonaro also criticized mayors and governors again because of restrictive measures adopted to contain the pandemic.
“They talk so much about the Constitution, right? Those who defend the Constitution talk so much, and there it is, article 5 of the Constitution violated. They have more power, a simple decree, more power than a state of siege,” said Bolsonaro.
Article 5 of the Constitution provides, among other matters, that everyone is equal before the law, with no distinction of any kind, guaranteeing Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country the inviolability of the right to life, liberty, equality, security and property.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Hamilton Mourão (PRTB) also commented on the CPI and said that it is “poorly placed and will serve as an electoral platform for many people.”
Without mentioning Renan by name, Mourão also referred ironically to the senator’s speech made at the committee’s establishment.
“Others who were in the limbo of history were resurrected and now present themselves as heralds of democracy and best practices. But this is part of our political process, we need to have resilience and a hard back to put up with this,” he said.