RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, has for the time being ruled out all 27 motions to begin proceedings for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro that have been submitted to the Chamber, or the establishment of a CPI (Parliamentary Inquiry Committee) to investigate the resignation of former Minister of Justice Sérgio Moro.
“It is legitimate that Deputies should try to discuss a CPI and other instruments, but the Chamber, under my leadership, should deal with what is most important at this time. We must return to the agenda that concerns all Brazilians, which is the fight against the novel coronavirus. It is not that the other issues are not a concern, but they need to have the patience to analyze the situation”.
“Congress cannot be yet another source of uncertainty,” he said at a press conference when arriving at the Chamber on Monday, April 27th.
According to Maia, appointing or exonerating Ministers should be the role of the Executive and, if there are any issues, in this case, the Prosecutor General, Augusto Aras, has already asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for an investigation. “The crisis is in the Executive Branch and should remain there. The role of the Legislature is to discuss solutions to the crisis”.
After several days of failing to make public statements, Maia said he had used this time to think and listen to technical health and economic experts. According to Maia, the country is still in the early stages of the increase of COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths.
“The projections for the increase in deaths are very striking, alarming. In addition to public health, we have an impact on the economy. By projecting the end of the year, if compared to what we expected for 2020 before the pandemic, we will reach a ten percent drop in economic activity. This should lead to an increase of 16 percent in unemployment, or four to five million more people unemployed”.
“These are very dramatic numbers for the lives of Brazilians”.
Source: Gazeta Brasil