CPMI January 8: who’s who on the committee and what to expect

The Commission will investigate the attacks on the Three Powers buildings in Brasilia early this year. Meet the president, the rapporteur and the other 30 members.

After hesitations and delays, on 8 January the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) launched an investigation into the attacks on the buildings of the Three Powers in Brasilia.

Made up of 32 members — 16 senators and 16 federal deputies (in addition to their deputies) —, the CPMI will have a majority of deputies allied with the Lula government.

In total there are 18 parliamentarians aligned with Planalto (9 senators and 9 federal deputies) and 9 opponents, as well as 5 independents (that is, who do not declare themselves aligned with either side).

The presidency of the committee, which defines the work, was held by one of those considered independent: the deputy Arthur Maia (União-BA), ally of the mayor, the federal deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), one of the leaders of the subtitles known as the Centrão.

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will have allies in two key positions: Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA) has been chosen as rapporteur and Senator Cid Gomes (PDT-CE) will be the first vice president.

Opposition Senator Magno Malta (PL-ES) completes the board as 2nd Vice-President.

Check the complete composition of the CPMI at the end of this report.

The position of both the government and the opposition towards the commission varied over time.

The CPMI’s request was led by an opposition member, federal deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE), from the same party as former president Jair Bolsonaro.

He is currently one of the members of the CPI and is being investigated by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in an investigation into the January 8 attacks, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), based on posts he made on social media.

The commission was formally created on 26 April, but was only established on 25 May, when the group’s first meeting took place.

Initially the opposition was committed to carrying out the commission, as they imagined that they had obtained ammunition against the government with videos showing the then minister of the Institutional Security Office, reserve general Marco Edson Gonçalves Dias, in Planalto on the day of the attacks .

Dias was accused of being lenient with the invaders based on what was allegedly shown in the images. He denies it and later asks to leave the command of the ministry. In an interview with GloboNews after the filing, Dias said he had placed “his position at the disposal of the President of the Republic so that the entire investigation could be carried out”.

The Lula government, on the other hand, was slow to name names because it didn’t want the commission’s inauguration to interfere with Congress’s approval of the fiscal framework — which will replace the current spending ceiling and was Lula’s top priority at all beginning of government.

In recent days, however, the mood has changed. The framework was passed fluently in the Chamber of Deputies on May 23 and is now moving to the Senate.

At the same time, the investigation by the Federal Police into the alleged involvement of Jair Bolsonaro as an intellectual perpetrator of the attacks raised the possibility that the CPMI could be very damaging to the image of the former president – which again made the government interested in the commission , estimate political analysts interviewed by BBC News Brasil.

The rapporteur of the CPMI, Eliziane Gama, says she does not rule out, for example, the possibility of calling Bolsonaro to testify to the commission.

However, the fact that Lula has a majority in the commission does not mean that the result will necessarily be positive for the government, says political scientist Creomar de Souza, a professor at the Dom Cabral Foundation and founder of the political consulting firm Dharma.

He says that while the CPMI is, for the government, “a relatively controlled environment that can also emerge with favorable results,” it can also be the stage for “Bolsonarist MPs to wreak havoc and feed the far-right fake news machine” .

Souza says the government had great difficulty articulating in Congress and missed the opportunity to hold a CPI in the Senate – whose composition is more sympathetic to the government than the House – immediately after the January bombings.

«The government, in what I believe was an error of assessment, thought it would not be good to hold a CPI at that time. But then the CPI arrived with the Chamber, in which the president, Arthur Maia, is not an ally of the government, ”he explains.

Maia is close to the mayor, Arthur Lira, and both were allies of Bolsonaro during his rule.

For Souza, the government’s relationship with the Chamber is so fluctuating that it is difficult to predict the progress of the commission.

“The government can win a huge victory on a Tuesday and, by Wednesday, suffer a significant loss,” he says. “The government has had difficulties both in perspective – he articulated it badly – and in arithmetic – the number of MPs willing to sit next to the government (in the Chamber) is low”.

As for the possibility of attrition, Souza says, the government is more concerned about the CPI than the MST, which will investigate recent occupations by the landless movement and could be far more problematic for the government.

Even if the final report doesn’t actually translate into concrete administrative or judicial actions, a CPI is always a debate about interpretations of reality: the symbology, the noise, the tumult and the media result are central components, he says.

One example, he says, is how the CPI on Covid has generated attrition for the Bolsonaro government even though the final report — which accused him of crimes — did not lead to prosecutions due to the Attorney General’s (PGR) refusal to start a criminal case.

As for the January 8 CPMI, another problematic possibility for the Executive is that its operation could divert Congressional attention from agendas considered important to the Lula government, such as tax reform.

“This kind of climate (of animosity created by the dispute over the CPMI narratives) interests Bolsonarismo more,” says Sérgio Praça, a political scientist and professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV).

“The CPI on this issue is fundamental and should really happen,” says Praça, “but unfortunately there is this negative consequence of diverting public debate to a ‘Bolsonarist’ issue” instead of focusing on approving important structural reforms.

However, Praça stresses that the January 8 CPMI is not necessarily something that places government and opposition at opposite poles – as if only the government is interested in punishing those responsible for coup acts.

“There are opposition MPs against coups. The PT and its coalition are not the only political force that prefers democracy to dictatorship in Brazil, but the government can use the CPI to sell this idea, which I consider wrong “says Praca.

Source: Terra

Rose

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