PMDB may appoint five of the 15 members of the CPMI.
The minority bloc in the Senate, composed of PSDB and DEM, will be allocated only three seats.
Agency Brazil - The General Secretariat of the Senate Board delivered today (12) to the President of the House and of the National Congress, José Sarney (PMDB-AP), the survey on how the composition of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) that will investigate the relations of the illegal gambling businessman Carlos Ramos, Carlinhos Cachoeira, with public and private agents will be.
The nominations for the Senate's representatives on the Cachoeira Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI), as the commission is being called in Congress, will be divided according to the blocs formed by the various political parties, according to information from the General Secretariat of the Senate. Thus, the bloc supporting the government – which includes the PT, PCdoB, PSB, PDT, and PRB – will be responsible for five nominations of full members. The majority bloc – composed exclusively of the PMDB – will receive five more nominations. The minority bloc, formed in the Senate by the PSDB and DEM, will be allocated three seats. The new União e Força bloc, formed by the PR, PSC, and PTB, will be entitled to two seats.
With this division, the 15 Senate seats on the joint committee will be filled. In addition, according to the secretariat, there will be an extra seat to guarantee space for parties that are not part of blocs and therefore do not meet the proportionality criterion. In this case, this seat should be divided between PSOL, PP, PV, and PSD.
The leader of the PMDB in the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), has already stated that the party will make internal nominations for all the positions it is entitled to and does not intend to cede them to other parties. “We are 21 senators. If we have 15 members [from the Senate in the CPMI], the PMDB will nominate five members. We will have no difficulty because the caucus is large,” declared Renan after a meeting with President Sarney and the government leader in the House, Eduardo Braga (PMDB-AM).
The PSDB has been demanding that the minority be given more space and, therefore, hold the presidency or the rapporteurship of the Cachoeira Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. The PMDB leader, however, has already signaled that he does not intend to relinquish the space that belongs to his party. "Politically, it's legitimate [the PSDB's desire], but we have to follow the rules," he declared.
Despite this, there are still no decisions on which party will nominate the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Commission and which will nominate the rapporteur. The senators still need to wait for the nominations of the 16 deputies who will make up the Chamber's side of the commission and who will also be vying for one of these two positions.
The CPMI still depends on collecting signatures in both houses to be installed. The commitment of the PT leader, Senator Walter Pinheiro (BA), to President Sarney is to deliver the request with 171 signatures from deputies and 27 signatures from senators next Tuesday (17). Negotiations on the division of positions and members of the commission, according to Sarney, will not be conducted by him.
"My role as president is simply to receive [the request from] the committee, read it [in plenary session], and have the signatures verified in accordance with the Common Rules of the National Congress. Regarding the composition of the committee, how it should be formed, that is the exclusive responsibility of the leaders," he declared today after the meeting.
The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) investigating Cachoeira will investigate all allegations stemming from the Federal Police's Vegas and Monte Carlo operations, which dealt with the illegal gambling mafia in Brazil. Illegal gambling kingpin Carlinhos Cachoeira was arrested in February, and since then, numerous telephone recordings of him and other members of his gang with authorities and public officials have been leaked to the press. The allegations primarily targeted Senator Demóstenes Torres (independent-GO), who was caught soliciting money and engaging in influence peddling, and officials close to the governors of the Federal District, Agnelo Queiroz, and Goiás, Marcone Perillo. In addition, five federal deputies are mentioned in the conversations.