Chamber refutes Cunha's arguments against impeachment.

Brasilia 247 - Two opinions sent by the Chamber of Deputies to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) refute the arguments of former House Speaker Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) that there were irregularities in the processing of the case seeking the revocation of his mandate. The presidents of the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), Deputy Osmar Serraglio (PMDB-PR), and of the Ethics Council, Deputy José Carlos Araújo (PR-BA), affirm that the process followed the rules to the letter.

The Ethics Committee's opinion states that it is 'incoherent and irrational' to accept Cunha's defense argument, which claims that the impeachment process should be suspended because the PMDB member is removed from office by order of the Supreme Court.

"Suspending the proceedings for breach of parliamentary decorum against the petitioner simply because the exercise of his mandate has been suspended by judicial decision would be inconsistent and irrational, since one of the objectives of suspending the exercise of the mandate was precisely to prevent the deputy from interfering in the process," says the text by Deputy José Carlos Araújo.

The president of the CCJ, on the other hand, says that the session that approved the opinion in favor of Eduardo Cunha's removal from office was opened 'respecting the internal regulations,' which stipulate that deliberative meetings of the committees can be opened with at least half of their members present. Cunha, however, claimed that the session had been opened with a lower quorum than required.

Cunha's defense filed a writ of mandamus with the Supreme Court last week as a last attempt to block the impeachment process in the Chamber of Deputies. The report requesting the removal of the PMDB member from office was read in plenary session this Monday.

With the reading, the request to remove Cunha from office, approved by the Ethics Committee, should be included, within two ordinary sessions, as a priority on the plenary agenda, as soon as it is published in the Chamber's Official Gazette. However, this priority does not obligate the request to be judged. It is up to the Speaker of the House, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), to set the date for the vote.