In Brazil’s election year 2022, US$1 billion will be available to the parties

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The approval by Congress of the electoral and party funds guaranteed to the Brazilian legions an unprecedented amount of public resources in the election year 2022. A total of R$5.96 billion (US$ 1 billion) will be available to the parties for campaign financing and to cover the costs of the organizations. This amount is the sum of the two financial reserves and represents an increase of 92.5% compared to 2018, in inflation-adjusted values.

The distribution of public resources among the parties is based mainly on the size of the seats elected in the House. With this, PSL and PT will get the largest shares of public resources: R$604 million and R$594 million, respectively.

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Adding to the amount that will be allocated to the DEM (R$341.7 million), the União Brasil – the new player that will be born from the merger of the two parties – will have almost R$1 billion in public money next year. Articulated by Luciano Bivar (PSL) and ACM Neto (DEM), the new legend is awaiting a referendum by the Electoral Justice and has become one of the most valuable in next year’s election.

By the score of 358 to 97 votes, the House of Representatives approved on Tuesday the final report on the 2022 Budget, presented by the rapporteur, Representative Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), which allocated R$4.9 billion for electoral campaigns next year and R$1.06 billion for the Party Fund.

With criticism to the value of the electoral fund and the amount reserved for amendments of the secret budget, revealed in May by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, four parties oriented their benches for the rejection of the budget: PCdoB, PSOL, Novo and Podemos, of the pre-candidate to the Presidency of the Republic Sergio Moro. The others voted “yes”.

In the Senate, in a vote that lasted into the night, the text sent by the House was approved in its entirety, without amendments, by a score of 51 votes in favor and 20 against. Podemos, Rede (Network), and Cidadania (Citizenship) were in favor of not approving the text. PDT, PSDB and PROS released their benches. The other parties guided for the approval of the text.

The electoral fund of R$ 4.9 billion for 2022 represents the largest volume of public money poured into political campaigns in history. The figure was set after negotiations with leaders of the Centrão, Bolsonaro government base, who resisted further reducing the value, initially provided for R$5.1 billion by the budget rapporteur. The money can be used to pay, for example, travel for candidates, hiring of electoral cables and advertising on social networks.

In comparison with 2018, the amount that includes the Partisan Fund almost doubled in real terms, i.e., comparing values updated for inflation.

In addition to the PT of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, other legends that house the main presidential candidates will be boosted with public money in the election year: the PSDB of São Paulo governor João Doria will have a total of R$378.9 million; the PDT, of Ciro Gomes, R$299.3 million; the Podemos, of Sérgio Moro, R$228.9 million. MDB, which launched Senator Simone Tebet (MS), and PSD, which is considering the candidacy of Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (MG), will have R$416.9 million and R$397.6 million, respectively.

SOCIAL

The rapporteur, deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), cited social spending and the size of the federal budget to justify the increase in the electoral fund and the rapporteur’s amendment level in 2022, an election year.

“Of course we understand the debate, the discussion, and sometimes the polemic that it causes, for example, with the electoral fund, which is also a percentage point in this trillion-dollar universe we are discussing. All of this can be debated, but we can’t lose sight of what we have for the future, what we are building for the country at this moment”, said Leal.

Representatives of parties that guided against the Budget vote criticized the billionaire allocation of public money to the parties. “We are once again condemning millions of Brazilians to poverty and misery because of the 2022 Budget approved by Congress that, unfortunately, was not sufficiently debated,” said deputy Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS).

The electoral fund is an amount taken entirely from the public purse (National Treasury) and allocated to parties in election years to finance campaigns. The use of public funds was approved in 2017 by the House after the Supreme Court banned corporate funding of political campaigns.

Corporate donations were vetoed in the wake of the revelations of Operation Lava Jato. In 2014, the last year that corporate funding was in effect, the sum of all campaigns in Brazil reached R$5.1 billion (R$7.6 billion if updated for inflation), according to a survey of expenses declared to the Superior Electoral Court.

With information from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.