Dilma's base is only big in size, says Dora

247 - Size doesn't matter. That's the argument of journalist Dora Kramer, who challenges the strength of President Dilma Rousseff's allied base. Although the governing alliance controls 80% of parliament, it has been suffering a series of defeats, as happened last week with the Ports Provisional Measure. Read below:

An unusual fact, worthy of inclusion in the catalog of unprecedented events that the PT prides itself on, in its delusion that it has reinvented Brazil: the president of the Republic is highly popular, has an overwhelming parliamentary majority, faces a meager opposition, and yet, on fundamental issues, loses one vote after another in Congress.

The list of recent setbacks is well known: the Forest Code, the law on the distribution of oil royalties, the ICMS tax reform, and the regulatory framework for ports.

For a government that, in theory, controls 80% of Parliament, let's face it, these are considerable feats: having a veto overturned (royalties), being defeated by the actions of its main partner (PMDB, on the Forest Code), seeing a proposal retaliated against by government supporters (ICMS), and considering resorting to a decree if deputies and senators do not heed the "appeal" to approve a provisional measure (ports) on the eve of its expiration.

The obvious conclusion is that this allied base is only large in size. It serves to obstruct parliamentary investigations, to perpetuate maneuvers such as attempts to restrict the functioning of new parties – to create difficulties for potential electoral opponents; it serves to guarantee television time for political advertising, but it is of no use whatsoever when it comes to making the country move forward.

Simply because President Dilma Rousseff doesn't seem to have the slightest idea what terms and expressions like articulation, negotiation, consensus building, moderating power, reconciliation of interests, exercise of delegated authority, and composition of opinions mean.

It solemnly ignores the components indispensable to the functioning of an administration in a democratic regime.

Inept at navigating politics – an activity she seems to despise – Dilma ended up transforming her enormous parliamentary base into an ungovernable giant.

Perhaps she doesn't know, or hasn't listened to those who tried to warn her: simply acquiring allies through the distribution of ministries doesn't make the world go round. It may not seem like it, but political opportunism alone doesn't motivate Congress. Voluntariness, the imposition of one's will, bad manners, and irritability may create a strong image of a ruler, but they don't guarantee the strength of a statesman.

The poor relationship between the President of the Republic and Congress has been present since the beginning of her administration and cannot be resolved with favors, dinners, sham advisory meetings, and unfulfilled promises.

There needs to be a minimum of commitment to the other party (in this case, the Legislative Branch), which may even be seen as compromised but has every right not to consider itself merchandise available for any use.

Wrong path. Minister Guilherme Afif claims that his criticisms of the PT, Dilma, and Lula were "campaign rhetoric." In an interview he gave days ago to the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, he repeated a statement made by Congressman João Paulo Cunha at the very beginning of the PT government.

Asked why the party voted as the opposition on proposals that it would later incorporate when it became the ruling party, the now-convicted man awaiting an arrest warrant replied: "Politics."

Both (and not the only ones) assume that the electorate is pragmatic and therefore neither condemns nor pays attention to these contradictions between what politicians say and what they do.

Practice shows that this does happen. But there is a side effect that their excellencies do not take into account: the further their words are from their actions, the greater the potential for discredit in relation to political activity, with increasingly negative results for those who practice it.

And credibility that is lost is difficult to recover.

Dilma's base is only big in size, says Dora.

A columnist for Estado newspaper claims that the government controls 80% of parliament, but has managed the feat of being defeated on royalties, the Forest Code, the ICMS reform, and now, the ports.