Porto Alegre City Council opens impeachment proceedings against Mayor Nelson Marchezan, a member of the PSDB party.
By a vote of 31 to 4, city councilors voted to accept impeachment proceedings against Mayor Nelson Marchezan Júnior, who is supported by the MBL (Free Brazil Movement), on charges of diverting health funds to advertising.
Do On the 21 - The Porto Alegre City Council approved this Wednesday (5), in an extraordinary session, by 31 votes to four, the admissibility of the impeachment request against Mayor Nelson Marchezan Júnior (PSDB), due to the use of resources from the Municipal Health Fund to pay for advertising expenses.
According to Nair Berenice da Silva, Andrea Glashester Pires Weber, Carlos Frederico Brandt, and Fernanda da Cunha Barth, who signed the request to initiate the impeachment process, data available on the Executive Branch's Transparency Portal indicates that the mayor authorized the use of R$ 2.414.465,14 from this fund for advertising expenses.
In addition to this amount, the signatories of the petition also claim that Marchezan authorized the withdrawal of a total of R$ 3.122.799,40 from this fund for the payment of advertising material not only in media outlets in the capital, but also "beyond the limits of the Municipality of Porto Alegre," a fact that they suggest should be investigated by the Investigating Committee.
This is the sixth impeachment request against Mayor Nelson Marchezan Júnior. All previous ones were dismissed. This time, however, the acceptance was overwhelmingly approved. The only votes against accepting the request were from councilors Airto Ferronato (PSB), Claudio Conceição (PSL), Mauro Pinheiro (PL), and Ramiro Rosário (PSDB). With the admissibility approved, a Processing Committee will now be established with three councilors drawn by lot to preside over and report on the Committee.
After being notified, Marchezan must present his defense, and the Investigating Committee will decide whether to proceed with or dismiss the case. If the Committee chooses to dismiss it, this decision must still be voted on in plenary session. For the mayor's impeachment to be approved, two-thirds of the votes in the City Council are required, that is, 24 out of a total of 36 council members.