There are already members of parliament wishing everyone a Merry Christmas in the Chamber.
"May this Christmas allow us to reflect on our past to improve our future. Let us ask God to bless us and shine with His light, opening the path to Him"; this message, sent this week to colleagues, is from Congressman José Carlos Aleluia (PSD); he explained through his press office that the greeting card was sent in error due to "a synchronization problem" with his institutional email; however, a journalist believes that the congressman wants the year to "end quickly".
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Federal deputies were surprised by an email from José Carlos Araújo (PSD) from Bahia wishing them a Merry Christmas in the middle of July. "May this Christmas allow us to reflect on our past to improve our future. Let us ask God to bless us and shine with His light, opening the path to Him."
Araújo explained through his press office that the greeting card was sent in error due to "a synchronization problem" with his institutional email and that the message is the same one sent for the 2012 year-end celebrations.
However, according to Lauro Jardim of Veja magazine, who published the story and received an explanation from the congressman, the event reveals the "agony" of parliamentarians as 2013 draws to a close. Jardim's statement is below.
Goodbye New Year
The anxiety among the members of parliament about the end of 2013 is so great that some are already dreaming of the holiday season. José Carlos Araújo has even started appealing to Santa Claus: his office sent a Merry Christmas message via email to all 512 of his colleagues in the Chamber of Deputies.
In a year of angry demonstrations and protests against the political class, the text seems like a bad joke:
May this Christmas allow us to reflect on our past in order to improve our future. Let us ask God to bless us and shine with His light, opening the path to Him for us.
(Update, at 17:07 PM: José Carlos Araújo contacted us and blamed the system, arguing: "there was a synchronization problem with the congressman's institutional email and, due to a glitch, the year-end email, sent in 2012, was sent again").