Brazil’s Senate president rules out vote this week, says there’s “no consensus” on amending “law on state-owned companies”

The president of the Brazilian Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, gave an interview to journalists this Thursday (Dec. 15) afternoon, and spoke about the status of the State-owned Law project, which aims to change the quarantine of politicians who have acted within a given party structure, to assume management positions in state-owned companies. 

According to the representative of the Upper House of the Legislative, there is no definition on the subject – which was approved “in a hurry” in the Chamber of Deputies on the night of last Tuesday, 13, without the procedure in committees. 

“What I have noticed in most Senate leaders is the need to reflect on this. I don’t want to say that it will be postponed for next year, but it won’t necessarily be this week and it may not be the next either,” he said. 

Named by parliamentarians the ‘Aloizio Mercadante amendment’, as the politician was appointed by President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, progressive-globalist) to head the National Social Development Bank (BNDES), the change aims to shorten the 36-month quarantine for 30 days for a politician to withdraw from any party activity and be considered compatible with the command in the new public position of leadership. 

“In these issues where there is more controversy, it is difficult to take an agenda that does not have much consensus directly to the plenary. It may be recommendable, yes, to go through the House committees”, said Pacheco after informing that the responsible committee would be the Constitution and Justice (CCJ). 

However, the National Congress will only have one more week of parliamentary work before the legislative recess.

For the period, the president of the Senate considered that the priorities in the House will be processing the Transition PEC and the 2023 Budget.

With information from Jovem Pan