Bolsonaro mocks Brazil Senate’s televised Covid CPI, calling it “fiasco” and “joke”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday, June 1, said that the televised Covid CPI (Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Brazil’s management of Covid) is “a fiasco” and “a joke.”

The president’s statements occurred on the day the committee heard oncologist Nise Yamaguchi. The doctor is an advocate of the use of hydroxychloroquine – a drug with no proven efficacy in the treatment of Covid – and is close to the government.

“Why this pressure, this wave of governors who don’t want to testify to the CPI? But the CPI is a fiasco, isn’t it? Whatever has Renan Calheiros (a Brazilian politician and former President of the Senate of Brazil) as rapporteur is a joke. Can you take a CPI like that seriously? Not a chance,” said Bolsonaro to a group of supporters, outside the Alvorada Palace.

The president’s comments were streamed on a Bolsonarist website.

Bolsonaro also derided the governors who called on the STF (Supreme Court) to bar the CPI from summoning of state chief executives to testify, claiming they believe the central government should be held accountable, while they should remain protected.

“Ex-minister Eduardo Pazuello talked all the time, [secretary of Work and Education Management of the Ministry of Health] Mayra [Pinheiro] also talked all the time. Mayra gave a show, what she said there was like a film for these people who are normally not interested in listening to her,” he said.

In early 2021, some 30 senators, virtually all of whom are in opposition to the Bolsonaro administration, submitted a petition to the President of the Senate calling for a CPI to investigate (mis)management and omissions by the federal government in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

After ‘Big Brother Brazil’s ended, the televised ‘Covid CPI’ has become a national passion

The Covid CPI has become the new reality show for Brazilians. The channel created by the Senate on YouTube to report on the progress of the committee has over 3 million views in less than a month.

Featuring the testimony of 8 witnesses, the CPI that investigates actions and omissions of the Bolsonaro government during the pandemic has become a hit with the public, and the next chapters are eagerly awaited.

The interest in the CPI is so high among voters and supporters of committee members that senators have checked their social networks during questioning and even asked questions sent by web users.

For political scientist Marco Antonio Teixeira, from FGV-SP (Getulio Vargas Foundation of São Paulo), there are several reasons behind this interest in the Covid CPI. “First, the subject matter, which is striking and relates to the lives of many people. Then, the cast is good and they engage in rhetorical duels worthy of a show.”

“And, finally, the subject is not technical. Differently from the Petrobras CPI, for example, which was called the engineer’s CPI, the topics dealt with now are of public domain, i.e., they don’t require technical knowledge.”