Motta postpones vote on PL Antifaction due to lack of consensus and schedules session for Tuesday

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), postponed the vote on the anti-faction bill proposed by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva until next Tuesday, 18th, following a request from the rapporteur himself, Guilherme Derrite (PP-SP), due to still existing disagreements over the text.

“In response to the demand of several parliamentary colleagues, I urgently ask Your Excellency that we can definitively schedule this debate on Tuesday next week so that these corrections can be adjusted so that we do not run the risk of losing this great opportunity”, said Derrite.

The government is still critical of the rapporteur’s text and says that Derrite’s opinion weakens the Federal Police, causing “budget fragmentation”. This is what, for example, the leader of the PT in the Chamber, Lindbergh Farias (PT), said.

The text is also frowned upon by the Ministry of Justice. “If this text is approved as it is, we will throw a bomb at the existing system for combating criminal organizations,” said Marivaldo Pereira, secretary of legislative affairs at the department.

Derrite presented the fourth version of its substitute report on the night of this Wednesday, 12th, meeting yet another demand from the government, and included provision of resources for the Federal Police in the case of assets seized in operations against criminal organizations.

The Minister of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann, said earlier that Derrite’s previous report promoted a “decapitalization” of the PF by directing resources from federal funds and allocating them to the States.

“The rapporteur went back on not removing the powers of the Federal Police, but left the decapitalization of the Federal Police. By emptying all federal funds, by dividing these funds, distributing them among the states and leaving nothing for the federal government. This worries us a lot, because the Federal Police needs resources for its operations”, he stated.

In the new opinion, Derrite says that the allocation of seized assets must go to the Public Security Fund of the respective State, if the crime is investigated by local authorities; to the Fund for the Equipment and Operationalization of Core Activities of the Federal Police (Funapol), if the crime is investigated by the Federal Police. If there is joint action, the resource is divided equally.

For PT members, this “decapitalization” continues in the text. Marivaldo points out, for example, that most of the resources obtained by the Federal Police came from the National Anti-Drug Fund (Funad), and not from Funapol.

They also point out that competition with the Criminal Organizations Law would also cause “legal chaos”. “Criminals will be able to question, file countless appeals and delay processes. What is this ‘ultraviolent organization’? How is it different from a common criminal organization? That’s not in the text”, ponders Marivaldo.

Lindbergh also criticized this point. “The rapporteur insists on inventing categories without a legal basis, such as ‘ultra violent organization’, in an attempt to erase the rigorous terminology of ‘criminal faction’ introduced in the original text of the federal government. This type of conceptual improvisation weakens criminal policy, confuses legal practitioners and masks the real objective: to disfigure the Executive’s technical and consistent proposal, replacing it with a pile of empty concepts and contradictory devices”, he argued.

Throughout this Wednesday, Derrite visited party leadership rooms to collect suggestions for changes to the project’s wording. The main indications of change came from the government.

In addition to the conversation with the government leader, José Guimarães (PT-CE), Motta spoke with deputies from the Republicans, PSD, PP and União Brasil.

After the end of the session in the Chamber, the president of the House praised the project’s rapporteur, stating that Derrite demonstrated “maturity” by asking that the vote on the anti-faction bill only take place next Tuesday, the 18th.

“The discussion takes place on a daily basis. The rapporteur spoke with leaders and the government. He demonstrated that he is open to dialogue, to political construction”, he said.