Brazil's Supreme Court is expected to rule on a bill regarding political parties in May.
In a "rather informal conversation," as described by the Speaker of the House, Henrique Alves, legislative leaders met with Minister Gilmar Mendes at the magistrate's home to try to resolve the crisis triggered by the Supreme Court's intervention in the processing of the bill that inhibits the creation of new political parties. "We went to show that, on the part of the Legislative branch, there is no intention to strain relations, which should always be and will always be respectful between the two powers," said Alves. Renan Calheiros is expected to meet a second time with the minister, who intends to bring the case to the full Supreme Court next month.
247 - The presidents of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), and the Chamber of Deputies, Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB-RN), met on Monday afternoon with Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes to discuss the magistrate's decision to suspend the processing of a bill that inhibits the creation of new political parties. Henrique Alves described the meeting, which took place at Gilmar's residence, as "friendly and very respectful."
According to the Supreme Court Justice, the two parliamentarians requested expedited judgment on the merits of the case by the full court. "The request was for expedited analysis by the full court. We will judge this quickly, soon. I will take it [to the full court for analysis] in May," Gilmar Mendes informed the G1 news portal.
The Speaker of the House said the conversation was quite informal and served to ease tensions between the legislative and judicial branches. "We went to show that, on the part of the Legislative branch, there is no intention to strain the relations, which should always be and will always be respectful between the two powers," he said.
In an appeal filed with the Supreme Federal Court last week to try to overturn the injunction granted by Gilmar Mendes, the Senate's lawyers argued that the magistrate's provisional decision constituted a "very serious violation of the constitutional order because it undermines the functioning of democracy."
New meeting
Despite the friendly atmosphere, Renan informed that he should meet a second time with the minister next Monday, so that a decision can be made on the bill that makes it impossible to create new parties, whose processing was suspended by Gilmar Mendes last Wednesday.
“It was a good conversation and we will continue talking next Monday. I will provide the information. Regarding PEC 33, President Henrique is seeing what, from a procedural and constitutional point of view, can be done,” said Renan. “We are satisfied. Minister Gilmar was kind, defended his points of view and we defended ours, and the conversation will continue. The ball is in play, things are relaxed,” he commented.
There is still no decision in the Chamber of Deputies regarding what will be done about PEC 33, which proposes submitting Supreme Court decisions to Congress. Even archiving it is not ruled out, but Alves stressed that it is necessary to respect the decision of the CCJ (Committee on Constitution and Justice) that approved the proposal. “We have to respect the CCJ, which is a collegiate body that met and held the vote. We are going to change this model from now on,” he said. “In the next few hours I will present a draft resolution to amend the rules stating that, from now on, any PEC, at any stage it is in, will have to be voted on nominally,” he commented.
With information from Agência Câmara and Agência Brasil.