A real “war” around the execution parliamentary amendments To Budget it will determine the fate of the future government and will have more importance and influence on the costs of governance than party federations and other innovations in electoral law, such as the end of coalitions in proportional elections.

This analysis, by political leaders and political scientists, sheds light on the strongest side of the coalition’s presidential crisis, a model that has traditionally defined the relationship between Executive e Congress in the country. According to experts, such a balance of forces required for controllability was compromised in management. Jair Bolsonaro, which gave way to a “co-optation of presidency,” in which Congress became responsible for half of the executive’s investment, without committing itself to public policy or government budgetary responsibility.

In numbers, this situation is described by the dynamics of the budget execution of the parliamentary amendments, which decreased from the 3.3 billion reais pledged in 2015 to 26.5 billion reais in 2021. In 2022, the federal budget provides for investments of 44 billion reais and $ 21.1 billion for parliamentary amendments.

“The next president is going to have a hellish first year with Congress. It will be a life-and-death battle to find out who will control the execution of the budget, ”he said. Alessandro Molon (PSB), leader of the opposition in the House. In his opinion, this “war” means the end of the secret budget, as evidenced by state, which is based on the rapporteur’s amendments – and will determine the success or failure of the future government.

MP Samuel Moreira (PSDB-SP) estimates that 53% of the total federal government investment of R $ 50 billion was spent on amendments to parliament in 2021. “More than half of the investment budget comes from individual parliamentary, court sessions, commissions or rapporteur amendments. It wasn’t like that in 2015. ”

In his opinion, the country must face this situation. “Under a presidential system, it is difficult to have a parliamentary budget.” Moreira said Congress strongly influences the budget without being held accountable for the political outcome of the government. “No matter how strong you build a coalition, it will only serve to stay in power, not to improve the quality of government.”

Molon agrees with the toucan. In his opinion, the secret budget – only the rapporteur’s amendments in 2022 will amount to 16.5 billion reais – in practice, the execution of these resources is transferred from the executive to the legislature. Apart from the lack of transparency in the use of funds, the decision-making criteria are unknown. “It’s not republican, legal or moral. It is impossible to build such a country. ”

Categories

For the president of the IDB, federal deputy Rossi Keith (JV) the secret budget forms the deputies of the first, second and third categories. “I am not against the amendments, on the contrary, I represent my electoral base; a lot of health action depends on these amendments, but the secret budget creates a number of serious distortions for democracy. ”

According to the emedebist, the amendments are used to influence the voting, which affects the discussion of issues of principle for the country, which hinders the parties. “Naturally, the base deputy is more involved in putting forward the projects of the structural government. But what is happening is very bad, as it means that the parties no longer control the discussion of issues. ”

Baleya also predicts that the next president will have to face this problem. The solution, he said, could be to increase individual tax amendments, “which will be transparent and cover the base of all states.”

Head of the PP in the chamber, deputy Bon Gass (RS) states that “the parliament must control resources and vote on the budget, but the executive must rule the country.” “We are not in a parliamentary regime. Therefore, we believe that this mechanism is wrong, ”he said. “We have to consider this.”

Costs

Apart from budget execution, other factors, such as the fragmentation of parties in the parliament, which currently consists of 24 parties, also increase what analysts usually refer to as the cost of manageability. For the political scientist Umberto Dantas, the figure of the president of the republic also plays an important role in this calculation.

“The characteristics of the president, the fact that he is Bolsonaro, Temer or Dilma Rousseff, completely change the question of controllability. Bolsonaro’s intensity and aggressiveness, as well as the ability and manner with which he negotiates handling, largely explains the situation in which we find ourselves, ”said Dantas.

According to Molon, the country lives “in a disguised semi-presidential regime in order to try to preserve what is left of the support of the decadent president.” “This is a president who does not govern, does not choose resources and turns all votes into ‘take it there, come here.’ The project is no longer discussed. Politics has become a retail of individual amendments. This is a disaster, the worst of the worlds; it is not presidential power or parliamentarianism. This is a fair where everyone has the right to make a number of amendments. It won’t work. “