Congress elections are a sign of democracy’s health

I disagree with the opinion of Folha de S.Paulo, which considers the election of Arthur Lira (PP-AL) as president of the Chamber of Deputies an “intolerable setback” (Feb. 1, 2021, A2, “Risk of servility”). That legislators choose such a president is, on the contrary, an advance of the limits we are able to bear in public life.

For the taxpayer, whose taxes did not decrease in proportion to the scarcity of health services and work possibilities, what remains is to vote in the elections that make up Congress.

Social movements as understood by political communication studies in Europe and the United States focus on the legislature. The glory of those movements is to reach legislation. That is, the Chamber and the Senate would be, at least in theory, the great stage for the issues of everyday life.

It has not been so. Hatred puts the Executive at the center of attention and immobilizes urgent causes.

Currently, 16 requests for parliamentary commissions of inquiry (CPIs) are pending in the Chamber, three concerning child sexual exploitation, sex tourism and human trafficking.

Deputy André Figueiredo (PDT-CE) proposed the creation of a CPI “intended to investigate the violation of constitutional principles and of the Democratic State of Law, due to the alleged coordination between members of the Federal Prosecution Office in Paraná and then-Judge Sergio Moro of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, made public by the website The Intercept [sic].” The last order will turn a year old tomorrow.

That Congress is diminished by being presided over in both houses by unknowns — by kings of the low clergy — was to be expected. The deputies and senators are at the level of Jair Bolsonaro.

Political life is going downhill, with morals agendas that recall a Pentecostal evangelical church, more over the dispute for posts than over the length of skirts.