Illegitimacy and arbitrariness

During the recording of the program about foreign participation in the coup that resulted in the removal of President Dilma, for "Opinião Pernambuco" on TV Universitária-UFPE, the thesis was discussed – which is being confirmed – that the illegitimacy, provisional nature, and fragility of the government usurping the presidential mandate led the interim and provisional officials to act with voracity and arbitrariness. Perhaps, out of fear of being removed from their positions much more quickly than they think. If they obeyed the Federal Constitution – which they do not – they would know that interim status does not grant the officeholder the right to make laws, appoint ministers and advisors, undo the acts of the legally constituted administration, etc.

"Interim" means more than just "provisional." It means they are in office for the time being, until the legitimately elected official returns. But the awareness of illegitimacy (along with immoral greed) makes interim officials act as if they were the permanent officials, and impeachment a fait accompli. Hence the interim vice-president's haste in advancing the impeachment process. Certainly fearing that the daily revelations from former Senator Sérgio Machado's testimony will further compromise, with ample documentation, the scandalous coup perpetrated against democratic institutions in Brazil.

The certainty that the coup will not be reversed, with the return of the President elected with 54 million votes, translates into the boundless audacity of the measures taken by the interim ministers, as if they were going to stay in their positions forever: one – who worked intensely for Dilma's temporary removal – received the Ministry of Cities and immediately cut 10 million from the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) program, affecting the poor and the homeless workers' movement. Another suggested that public universities start charging tuition fees; another wants to end the SUS (Unified Health System).

Now, a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Rouanet Law is being announced, following the disastrous attempt to abolish the Ministry of Culture. And the Chief Minister has already warned that he will cut spending on Health and Education. Add to this the change in the country's Foreign Policy and the opening of ports "to friendly nations." What will be left for the population is increased taxes and cuts to social rights and guarantees. An (illegitimate) government that does not depend on the popular vote thinks it can govern against the people and the country. It thinks it has carte blanche to dismantle the advances and successes of the genuine administration. They act as representatives of interests that enabled the coup. In defiance of any legality. Thinking there will be no tomorrow.

In this context, the silence of individuals, educators, thinkers, and parliamentarians who supported this farcical legal trial of the president for crimes of responsibility is unsettling. One of them is Cristovam Buarque, an educator, former rector of the University of Brasília (UnB), creator of the University of Peace and the Bolsa Família program in the Federal District, who served as Lula's Minister of Education and voted in favor of the coup. What does this distinguished senator from Pernambuco, now sheltered in this front party called PPS, have to say about the scandalous criminal process of removing the elected president?

Worse: what does he have to say about the fact that a protégé of the oligarchy from the Agreste region of his state has assumed – as a gift – the Ministry of Education, has threatened to sue teachers and critics of his administration, and has received, in his first audience, a porn actor to give him suggestions on Brazilian educational policy? – We await, with great anxiety, Your Excellency's pronouncement – ​​which is more than timely.