"The amnesty thesis has been defeated," says Lindbergh, PT leader in the Chamber of Deputies.
PL changes strategy and speaks of "responsible obstruction," amid the advancement of agendas defended by the government, such as income tax exemption for those earning up to R$ 5.
247 - The leader of the Workers' Party (PT) in the Chamber of Deputies, Lindbergh Farias (PT-RJ), stated that the bill that would have granted amnesty to those convicted for the coup attempts of January 8th was defeated this week, according to reports... CNN BrazilThe opposition threatened to obstruct legislative work during the week to push for an expedited process for the proposal, but this did not yield results.
“They [the opposition] need to come up with a plan. They spent the whole week saying they were going to present this, present the names, present the request, but in reality they didn't. This week, this amnesty argument was defeated here […] The amnesty was defeated, and the obstruction was defeated. The obstruction didn't get any votes,” said the congressman.
With the failure of recent moves, the opposition is trying to change strategy. The leader of the PL party, Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), stated that, after failing to secure the support of party leaders to move forward with the proposal, the opposition is trying to obtain the 257 individual signatures necessary for the urgency request.
"Since President Hugo Motta is asking leaders not to sign the urgency request, we started collecting individual signatures yesterday. At this very moment, we already have 163 individual signatures. 257 are needed," he declared.
Despite the change in strategy, Cavalcante said that the PL will continue to act through "responsible obstruction" of proceedings to prolong voting in the plenary. "Our obstruction is not irresponsible towards the House, which is why we are voting slowly on matters of importance to the country, but we will continue our responsible obstruction until President Hugo Motta feels comfortable enough to decide on allowing the leaders to sign," he stated.
Obstruction is a mechanism that allows for the delay or non-voting of certain bills. According to the opposition leader, Deputy Zucco (PL-RS), the objective is to pressure for the Amnesty Bill to be put on the agenda in April.
