Motta postpones vote on PL opponents due to lack of agreement, deliberations scheduled for Tuesday

Brasilia – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), at the request of the rapporteur himself, has postponed the vote on the anti-factionalism bill proposed by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva until next Tuesday, the 18th. Guilherme Delight (PP-SP), as there is still disagreement regarding the text.

“I urgently ask your Excellency to finally schedule this debate for next Tuesday, so that these amendments can be adjusted in a way that does not risk losing this wonderful opportunity, in response to the requests of several of my colleagues,” Mr Delight said.

The government continues to criticize the rapporteur’s text, saying Delight’s opinion weakens federal police and causes “budget fragmentation.” This is what Lindbergh Farias (PT), the PT leader of the chamber, said, for example.

This article has also been frowned upon by the Ministry of Justice. “If this document is approved in its current form, it will throw a bomb into the existing system for combating criminal organizations,” said Marivaldo Pereira, the ministry’s legislative secretary.

On Wednesday night, Delight filed the fourth version of its replacement report in response to further requests from the government, including providing resources to federal law enforcement when assets are seized in operations against criminal organizations.

Institutional Affairs Minister Gleij Hoffmann said earlier that Delight’s previous report facilitated a “capitalization” of the PF by diverting money from federal funds and allocating it to the states.

“While the rapporteur has gone back on not removing the powers of the federal police, he has left the federal police decapitalized by emptying all federal funds and dividing those funds up and distributing them to the states, leaving nothing for the federal government. This is very concerning to us because the federal police need resources to operate,” he said.

In the new opinion, Delight says that when crimes are investigated by local governments, an allocation of seized assets should go to each state’s public safety fund. If a crime is investigated by the Federal Police, a contribution is made to the Fund for the Equipment and Operationalization of the Core Activities of the Federal Police (Funapol). If there is joint action, resources are divided equally.

For PT members, this “capitalization” continues in the text. For example, Marivaldo points out that most of the funds obtained by the federal police did not come from Funapol, but from the National Anti-Narcotics Fund (Funado).

It also points out that conflicts with organized crime laws could also cause “legal confusion.” “Criminals will be able to interrogate, file countless appeals, and delay proceedings. What is this ‘ultra-violent organization’? How is it different from a typical criminal organization? That’s not mentioned in the text,” Marivaldo muses.

Lindbergh also criticized this point. “The rapporteur insists on inventing categories with no legal basis, such as ‘extremely violent organizations’, in an attempt to erase the precise term ‘criminal faction’ introduced in the original federal text. This kind of conceptual improvisation weakens criminal policy, confuses legal practitioners and obscures the real purpose: to disfigure the executive branch’s technical and coherent proposals and replace them with a pile of empty concepts and contradictory devices,” he argued.

Throughout Wednesday, Delight visited the party’s leadership office to gather suggestions for changes to the project’s wording. The main signal of change came from the government.

In addition to meeting with government leader José Guimarães (PT-CE), Motta also met with members of the Republican Party, PSD, PP and Brazilian Unity Party.