The climate of celebration by the federal government in view of the approval by the mixed commission of Provisional Measure 1154/23, which reorganizes the structure of the ministries, caused indignation among environmentalists and indigenous people, this Wednesday (24). In practice, the text of the rapporteur Isnaldo Bulhões Jr. (MDB-AL) withdrew important assignments from the ministries of the Environment and Climate Change, headed by Marina Silva (Sustainability Network), and of Indigenous Peoples, headed by Sonia Guajajara (PSOL).
On social networks, the PT in the Senate considered the approval a “victory”. In a press conference, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha (PT), praised the text of the rapporteur Isnaldo Bulhões. “It is natural that the National Congress, above all a joint commission that debates the Chamber and the Senate, wants to make contributions. These are contributions that maintain the initial spirit of the government’s restructuring, that is, those central issues are maintained”, he stated.
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Repercussion
After approval, the Climate Observatory published a note criticizing the changes. “Jair Bolsonaro passed, but the cattle stayed, and with unusual partners”, declared the organization. “The movement is not surprising in a Congress dominated by the ruralist-extreme right combo, which since the beginning of the year has been trying to pass all the herds that Bolsonarism has not been able to. he doesn’t even command the organization of the ministries themselves. The Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, praised the MP on Tuesday; the PT in the Senate celebrated on social networks the ‘victory’ of approval in the committee “, they say.
“By raffling off the socio-environmental agenda in the cabinet, the Lula government emulates its predecessor, who began dismantling the Environment precisely by withdrawing its attributions. And it contradicts the president’s environmental discourse, which swore to protect indigenous peoples and strengthen the fight against deforestation to climate changes. (…) Arthur Lira and his chainsaw men drive the cattle, but the one who opened the gate this time was the Planalto Palace.”
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Along the same lines, Luiza Lima, spokeswoman for Greenpeace Brazil, said that this Wednesday was “a day of profound setbacks for the environment and for indigenous peoples, which makes it clear that Bolsonaro left power, but the project of destruction he championed is still ongoing in the National Congress”.
Minister Marina Silva vehemently criticized the approval of the rapporteur’s text on the MP. “Okay, Lula. You’re saying you’re going to do this, that you’re going to do that, but your law doesn’t allow it. The structures have been changed. The structure of your government is not the one you won the elections. It’s the structure of the government that he lost. And that will close all our doors”, said the minister still this Wednesday, in a hearing held in the Senate to deal with the MP.
The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, in turn, stated that there is a certain “frustration” in President Lula’s distancing in relation to the MP’s discussions. “I cannot deny that there is, yes, a certain frustration. Also because President Lula made a commitment during the campaign, he promised a ministry, he fulfilled it, and this year he took a strong position with this protagonism of indigenous peoples and the resumption of the demarcation of territories”, said in an interview with GloboNews.
In a note, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples declared that “the amendments that call for the extinction or reconfiguration of the attributions of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples go completely against the Federal Government’s decision to treat indigenous peoples with the due importance and relevance they deserve, respecting the Federal Constitution of 1988”.
“Questioning the creation of a federal body whose guidelines are exclusively indigenous demands, in a portfolio managed by indigenous leaders who truly know the history of their peoples and feel their vulnerability every day is a record of how indigenous peoples continue to be victims of all kinds of violence, from physical violence to social and cultural erasure, as suggested by these amendments.”
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Contrary to the PT’s position, the party’s president and federal deputy for Paraná, Gleisi Hoffmann, considered it “very bad that the mixed commission that analyzes the MP for the restructuring of the government has approved a report that empties the Ministries of the Environment and Indigenous Peoples. (.. .) We are facing an offensive of right-wing backwardness in our country. We have to try to reverse this. Difficult day today in Congress”.
Even deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP), who was against the rapporteur’s text, criticized the changes in the Ministry of the Environment. “Emptying the ministry is an institutional issue, and these changes will be harmful, even if I vehemently disagree with Minister Marina Silva,” he said.
Assignments transferred
By 15 votes to three, congressmen approved the bill to convert the rapporteur, which changes the organization of ministries defined by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in January of this year.
One of the alterations that caused indignation was the transfer of recognition and demarcation of indigenous lands from the Ministries of Indigenous Peoples to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, by Flávio Dino (PSB).
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change will also no longer have some attributions. The Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), which during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) left the Environment and went to Agriculture, has now been transferred to the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, led by Esther Dweck.
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Basic sanitation systems, solid waste and water resources, in turn, go to the Ministry of Cities, run by Jader Barbalho Filho (MDB). The National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation (ANA) will be transferred to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development, headed by Waldez Góes (PDT), which has the support of the center-right in Congress.
The text will now be forwarded to the plenary sessions of the House and Senate, which must complete the analysis of the MP by June 1, when the measure expires.
Editing: Nicolau Soares
