Turbocharged amendments included senators who avoided declaring support for Messiah

In the two weeks that preceded the defeat of Jorge Messias’ nomination to the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) accelerated the release of parliamentary amendments to the Senate. The committed amount — that is, reserved for use — reached R$2.3 billion between April 10, one day after Messias’ hearing was scheduled, and last Wednesday, when the Union’s attorney general was rejected by the senators with 42 votes against.

The GLOBO survey includes funds from individual amendments, Senate committees and a joint committee of the National Congress. The list of senators most considered in the period includes names from the opposition to the Lula government and a parliamentarian from the base, Cid Gomes (PSB-CE), who was absent from the vote. As the vote is secret, it is not possible to know who was against Messiah’s nomination.

Among the senators who received the most amendments in April is Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), ally of the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), and rapporteur for the AGU nomination in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ). Since the 10th, the government has committed R$58.2 million to Weverton’s individual amendments, and also included the senator’s nominations in committee amendments.

On the day of the Messias hearing, for example, there was a commitment of R$ 4.9 million from the Regional Development Commission for paving works in the Maranhão municipality of Paço do Lumiar. The commitment note records Weverton as “requesting” the resource.

Opposition names

Among the ten most popular senators in the days leading up to Messias’ vote, three are in opposition to the Lula government: Romário (PL-RJ), Wellington Fagundes (PL-MT) and Marcos do Val (Avante-ES). The last two had declared their vote against Messias until the day before the vote, according to a GLOBO survey; Romário had not responded.

The government’s actions did not prevent the defeat of Messias, who had his nomination to the STF rejected with 42 votes against and 34 in favor, seven less than necessary. He was the sixth name rejected by the Senate for the Court in the entire history of the Republic — all the others occurred in the 19th century.

The score contrary to Lula’s recommendation highlighted betrayals and absences within the government base itself. Planalto’s ally, Cid Gomes was one of the four senators who missed the vote. Previously, the Ceará native had told GLOBO that he would not take a position on whether he was for or against the nomination.

In the period leading up to Messias’ defeat, Cid saw the government commit R$54.1 million to individual amendments, in addition to also considering his nominations for committee amendments.

Commitment is the first phase of public expenditure, preceding the settlement and payment of the resource. Last year, the federal government had not made any commitments during a similar period in April. As the previous Budget was only approved in March 2025, Planalto took a long time to start releasing the funds that year.

In 2024, disbursement in April reached R$2 billion, adjusted for inflation. In 2023, the amount committed in the same period was R$7.9 million.

Base in check

The government’s funding commitments for amendments also included senators from the MDB, such as Eduardo Braga (AM), Jader Barbalho (PA) and Renan Calheiros (AL), who had promised to vote for Messias. After the defeat of the AGU, Renan released a statement calling “the speculations” that he, Braga and senator Renan Filho (MDB-AL) had been against Messias in the vote were “lies.”

Another Lula ally contemplated having amendments released before the vote was Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), who had been avoiding declaring his position in the Senate until the day before.

Messias’ rejection occurred amid a behind-the-scenes effort attributed to the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, to block Lula’s nomination. Senators interviewed under reserve by GLOBO reported that Alcolumbre contacted centrist, opposition and undecided parliamentarians throughout the day, asking for a vote against Messias. After Alcolumbre scheduled Messias’ hearing, at the beginning of April, Planalto committed R$15.5 million to individual amendments from the president of the Senate.

Second before the scoreboard was opened in the Senate panel, the Board of Directors’ microphone captured Alcolumbre saying that Messias would lose by eight votes. In a note, Alcolumbre says that he was questioned by the government leader, senator Jaques Wagner (PT), about the voting score and, “like other parliamentarians who, over the last few days, had been making assessments, gave his opinion”.

“This only reaffirms and demonstrates the experience of the President of the House in voting”, says the note.