Globo exposes Cunha's monthly allowance scandal and demands his removal from office.
"Cunha, an expert on the Chamber's rules and, apparently, an efficient collector of slush fund money, created his own bloc in the House, based on quid pro quo deals," says an editorial in Globo, owned by João Roberto Marinho; "The unprecedented nature of the decision demonstrates the seriousness of the accusations against Cunha. There is, therefore, no justification for the Chamber not to impeach him," the newspaper further demands; however, the fact that Cunha supports more than 200 deputies, as one whistleblower stated, is what makes his impeachment difficult.
247 - In an editorial published this Friday, the newspaper O Globo calls for the removal of Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) from office and also states that the suspended congressman created his own political bloc. The difficulty, however, lies precisely in this: since Cunha supported more than 200 congressmen, according to a whistleblower, they will do everything to protect their ally. Read the editorial below:
The Chamber owes the country the removal of Cunha.
The setting of the date for the plenary vote on the proposal to impeach Congressman Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) was bound to be controversial, as is everything involving the former Speaker of the House. By establishing the date of September 12th, Rodrigo Maia, also a member of the PMDB party from Rio de Janeiro and Cunha's successor as Speaker, has been accused of helping the government of Michel Temer, supposedly interested in having the congressman's fate decided after the likely confirmation of Dilma's impeachment, which is expected to occur at the end of the month.
Maia's explanations, however, are consistent. Especially since his choice was based on the history of impeachment proceedings in the House since August 2011, whereby votes occur, on average, 19 working days, or approximately four weeks, after the publication of the proceedings in the House's Official Gazette. Rodrigo Maia also did not put the matter on the agenda for the end of this month because the impeachment trial of Dilma is scheduled for that time. It is indeed not advisable to have two controversial issues like these on the agenda together.
In addition to all this, next week marks the start of the municipal election campaign, in which the deputies participate. Therefore, it's a period of low voter turnout. Another alternative would be to schedule the impeachment hearing for immediately after the impeachment. However, if it is approved, Michel Temer will go to China for a G-20 meeting, and Maia will assume the Presidency of the Republic.
Political squabbles surrounding the Chamber's calendar are afoot; what matters is that the moment is approaching when someone who has become a symbol of corruption and unscrupulousness should finally be punished in the political sphere. This includes using his positions in the House (leader of the caucus, president of the Chamber) for his own benefit, both financially and politically. Indicted three times before the Supreme Court by the Public Prosecutor's Office and already a defendant in two other cases, Cunha is, among politicians, one of the prominent figures in Lava Jato. His operation of creating difficulties for Petrobras suppliers in the Chamber in order to extort bribes from them is well documented.
Cunha, an expert on the Chamber's rules and, apparently, an efficient collector of undeclared funds, created his own faction in the House, based on quid pro quo deals. But he couldn't prevent the Ethics Committee, in the longest process ever conducted by the body, from approving his expulsion for lying about not having accounts abroad. He did, but under the guise of a "trust," which he tried to explain as if it were an ethereal entity from another world. He also couldn't prevent Judge Sérgio Moro from indicting his wife, Cláudia Cruz, for money laundering and tax evasion.
Until he decided to resign from the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies in early July, which did not save him from the penultimate defeat in the Constitution and Justice Council—now, only the plenary session remains—the congressman had his mandate suspended and was removed from office by the Supreme Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The unprecedented nature of the decision demonstrates the seriousness of the accusations against Cunha. Therefore, there is no justification for the Chamber not to impeach him. This is also a way to counterbalance the damage that deputies and senators have caused to the image of the Legislative branch over all these years, during which some of them accepted the opportunistic co-optation of Lula's Workers' Party.