The last breath

As everyone has witnessed, the Federal Senate modulated its actions in the impeachment process as a moderating power, avoiding institutional disarray and irreparable fissures for future generations. Within the responsibilities of the Presidency of the Institution, we mirrored the paradigms of our Supreme Court to conduct the process with neutrality, serenity, and justice.

The Senate responded with the appropriate speed, without rushing. Unfazed by political passions, the process proceeded at the speed of the law. We neither applied the brakes to the point of procrastinating questions, nor did we accelerate in a way that suggested missteps in the defense of a sacred and inviolable territory. The lessons are many and demand political reform from Parliament. The current model is on its last legs.

There is no disagreement regarding the inherently destabilizing nature of the Impeachment Law, 1.079/50, which is anachronistic and flawed. All presidents have faced similar processes, and some have overcome them politically.

But beyond the need to modernize this law, the root of the problem lies in the country's decrepit and permissive political, electoral, and party legislation. It is imperative that we improve this legislation and abandon the Brazilian way of doing things when dealing with the future of national institutions.

The Federal Senate has already approved an organic Political Reform, with a beginning, middle, and end. Among the changes were the end of proportional coalitions, the barrier clause, and the prohibition of private campaign financing. These items favor fragmentation and the rampant corruption of the party industry, hindering the formation of majorities.

The palliative measures attempted in the electoral sanitation continue to drain the energies of the National Congress without eradicating the root causes of the problem. It is inevitable that the country will reconsider changing the system of government. Presidentialism bleeds daily. The so-called coalition presidentialism is a semantic attempt to attribute numerical stability to governments that have no stability whatsoever.

Along with this improvement, it is imperative that we promote the long-awaited political reform. Pandora's box, the source of contemporary imbalances, lies in the permissive and outdated political-electoral-party legislation. An organic reform is urgently needed, one that includes the end of proportional coalitions, the elimination of the barrier clause, and an open discussion of the campaign finance model.

As long as Parliament fails to deliver an efficient, modern, and representative political-electoral model to the country, it will continue to be questioned. Any model we may have is better than the current one, which fosters crises and instability. We need to reform politics so that politics can help Brazil.