Let's debate the elections of deputies and senators!

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By LUCIO GREGORI*

In addition to the majority election, it is fundamental for the progressive field to give the same importance to the legislative electoral public debate

I open newspapers and watch another poll on the TV about the 2022 presidential election. It must be the twentieth, or more, poll I see on the executive branch election, followed by comments on how much Lula has increased or decreased his advantage over Bolsonaro, what are the chances of winning in the first round, who will be in third place and more recently, how Moro's percentage varied and so on.

Apart from this flood of polls about the majority election, I see countless news about statements by Lula and other presidential candidates on various electoral issues and I also see countless analyzes on how the candidates are doing.

Not to mention the flood of news about who will be Lula's deputy with many analyzes of Alckmin's figure and the varied reactions to his probable candidacy for Lula's deputy. I also see various news about meetings held by presidential and vice presidential candidates.

In addition to the news, I also see that the militancy of the various parties, and in particular those on the left, manifest themselves in relation to the presidential dispute, as respective campaign themes and probable candidates for vice.

I conclude from all this that what will happen in the country will practically depend on the result of the majority election. It turns out that this is a huge untruth, as the legislative power is absolutely fundamental for the guidelines of national policies that must be followed by the executive power.

More than fundamental, I would say that the one who gives the guidelines for national policy is the legislative power, that is, the Federal Chamber and the Senate. And more, that Congress oversees the presidential executive power.

This text intends to open a debate on the subject and certainly does not exhaust the multiple aspects of the focused issue and does not address the Judiciary, which is another fundamental issue, but which is not involved in the electoral issue for the time being.

Through research, I find that emergency aid, electoral reform, Administrative dishonesty, payment of precatories, spending ceiling, labor reform, tax reform and the Union Budget, to name a few examples, depend on a law to be approved and regulated by the National Congress.

In general, the complementary law deals with the matters that are provided for by the Federal Constitution, the ordinary laws can address any matters, as long as these are not reserved for the complementary law, legislative decrees and resolutions. The legislative decree has as its object matters indicated as being the exclusive competence of the National Congress, for example: legal relations resulting from a provisional measure not converted into law; decide definitively on treaties, agreements or international acts.

In short, who says what the country's political guidelines are, is the National Congress.

Researching a little more about the attributions of the different powers, I find that it is not without reason that the presidential power is called the Executive Power. So the power of the president is executive, that is, a power to execute what is legislated and authorized by Congress. Except for the provisional measure, the executive branch does not legislate and does not establish as a rule the major political guidelines that will be followed in the country. At most, it can propose and create a climate regarding certain issues and their solutions and influence political guidelines through the authorizing budget. In addition, the provisional measures, the only ones that the President, let's say, can legislate, depend on approval or not by Congress and have a maximum validity of 120 days without such approval, and may be rejected by the legislative power at any time during this period. And the decrees, under the competence of the Executive, are an administrative activity and must follow the provisions of the laws, even if they may resemble a law.

Popular initiative for laws is minimal, almost none in the country. For no other reason, I see that in almost 30 years, the National Congress has approved four popular initiative projects, including the Clean Record Law, but none of them has been formally treated as being authored by the population.

From 1985 to 2005, 5540 bills were presented by senators and 21.447 legislative proposals began to be processed in the Chamber, Senate and National Congress between 1999 and 2006, to give you an idea of ​​the volume of legal texts that go through Congress. Since 1943 there have been around 123 projects, although only 11.193 became law.

I conclude that electing deputies and senators is, in fact, essential to establish the conditions for what the country's major political guidelines are. The executive branch will also be able to agitate and influence which issues are to be discussed by Congress, through the authorizing budget, legislative proposals and political debates and through the information it has with the management of public affairs. But at the limit, only Congress will define, in fact, what are the major political guidelines that will govern the country.

For this reason I am astonished, not to say outraged, at the attitude of so-called progressive or left-wing parties and politicians in relation to proportional elections, that is, deputies and senators. I only see almost exclusively debates about the majority election, agreements or not to support Lula or not, whether or not to have his own candidacy, what are the requirements or agreements to support or not this or that candidate for state executives, and so on.

No or almost no debate and campaign posture around proportional elections, names and propaganda of candidates, proposition of which laws and respective basic content should be proposed and approved by Congress and, therefore, should be considered when voting proportionally, etc. , etc.

And mainly through electoral campaigns strongly focused on proportional elections, to demonstrate to voters in general and to affiliates, sympathizers and activists of the so-called progressive field, the importance of the legislative power and of having a majority in it to, in fact, substantively change the policy from the country.

The right-wing/conservative sector in its broad spectrum, as well as the media in general, know all this very well, and act accordingly to keep the legislative electoral public debate on the sidelines and center it on the executive race.

Because of what we are discussing, the reader should immediately answer what his vote is for federal deputy, senator and state deputy. Once again, readers are sorry, but at the age of 85, it's time to see some very consistent politics, in the so-called progressive and left-wing field of the country. National Congress there!

*Lucio Gregory, engineer from USP, he was municipal secretary of transport in the government of Luiza Erundina.

 

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