Brazil’s Lula has been challenged by the first Congress decree rejected in decades
São Paulo (AP) – Brazil’s parliament on Wednesday canceled a presidential decree for the first time in decades, rejecting President Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva’s move to raise the financial transaction tax and expressing support for his left-minded government.
Lula’s allies have only 98 votes to 383 votes in the House of Commons to keep tax increases for certain transactions, including forex and credit cards. Two hours later, the senator also defeated the decree.
This is the first time that lawmakers have held a presidential decree in Brazil since 1992, which is Lula’s condemnation, a year ahead of the country’s next presidential election.
Although members of the Lula administration said the contents of the decree were negotiated with legislative leaders, including Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, they refused.
Motta, who is seen as a moderate, said the vote “tends to oneself” and that “every branch of power must understand the other’s limitations. It’s democracy.” He did not elaborate on it.
Independent political adviser Thomas Traumann, former Brazilian minister, said the lawmaker’s decision said Lula “has no stable majority in Congress.” He said it was the president’s historic defeat about a year before the campaign began.
“If it was a parliamentary system, it would be the end of the government,” Traman said.
The former president was vetoed by Congress 32 years ago, a few weeks before Fernando was collided, just before he was impeached and removed from his office. His decree at the time was about government-issued bonds.
Since Michel Temer’s presidency between 2016 and 2018, the Brazilian Congress has controlled much of the country’s budget, but the president can raise some taxes through a decree.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said Thursday that the Brazilian government is considering three alternatives to the Congressional ruling – bringing it to the Supreme Court to seek new sources of income or cutting the country’s budget.
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