Part of the opposition says it will go to the STF against the PEC dos Precatórios

The opposition split in negotiations for the approval of the PEC dos Precatório, and part of it promises to go to the Supreme Court if the proposal is approved.

“We will go to the Supreme if it is approved in the way it is being negotiated”, he told the CNN deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), member of the PT Executive and one of the main opposition negotiators in the articulations of the PEC in Congress.

According to him, the offer that the government is making to be able to approve the PEC cannot be made in practice because it would need to change the text that is already ready to be voted on in the plenary. The change, which would guarantee payment of the Fundef’s court orders, could only be made by a special commission.

The PT closed its position this afternoon against the PEC, which guarantees that none of its 53 deputies vote against the measure. But they have faced resistance from other opposition parties, in particular PDT and PSB, to follow the same path.

It is with them that the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, focused the negotiations this Wednesday. The PDT has 24 deputies and the PSB has 32. Party governors were even sought to adhere to the agreement and try to influence the benches. In the accounts of these parties and the government itself, the strategy has been successful.

The focus on the opposition is due to a peculiar phenomenon in the negotiations of this PEC. Center-right parties, which despite opposing or positioning themselves as independent in relation to the Planalto Palace, are working against the PEC. Case, for example, of PSDB, MDB and PSD. That’s why while the government, via Arthur Lira, manages to capture opposition votes, on the other hand, this capture is neutralized with the center-right votes that end up going against the PEC.

Officially, the center-right parties claim to be against relaxing fiscal rules, but behind the scenes there is a prevailing argument: the passage of the PEC gives President Jair Bolsonaro a fiscal slack with investment potential to boost his popularity in 2022.

Arthur Lira, however, has used at least two arguments to convince all deputies, regardless of the party spectrum: 1) it is necessary to deliver a robust social program to the population; 2) the fiscal space tends to guarantee more amendments for all deputies.

There is also a personal issue for Lira pointed out by several lawmakers: the victory in the PEC dos Precatórios became a personal issue after he suffered some defeats in the plenary. The most striking was the one that overthrew the PEC that made the control bodies of the Public Ministry more flexible.