Chamber carries out anti-MST offensive after Lula dismisses

The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved, suddenly, on Tuesday night (16), the urgency to process a proposal that imposes administrative sanctions and restrictions on occupants of rural and urban lands. This is bill (PL) 895/2023, one of the items in a combination of measures that seek to hinder the political action of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).

The approval comes after the organization began Red April, a period in which land occupations and other militant activities were intensified, as well as after President Lula (PT) dismissed the regional superintendent of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform ( Incra) from Alagoas, Wilson César de Lira Santos, cousin of the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who is responsible for defining the House’s voting agenda.

The placing of the urgency request for a vote outraged left-wing parliamentarians, who were caught by surprise. The request was not on the list of agendas to be evaluated this Tuesday after the agreements made by the bench leaders. “We cannot accept this. They arrested me there. I was not even in the plenary. We cannot allow this”, complained into the microphone the government leader, José Guimarães (PT-CE), who made an appeal to “restore the rite” of the Chamber.

PL 895 is on the list of proposals awaiting analysis by the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) and has not yet received an opinion from the rapporteur, deputy Ricardo Salles (PL-SP), former Minister of the Environment in the Bolsonaro government. “I’m not even going into the merits of the project yet. It’s just that, in their eagerness to vote anyway, they create agitation in the plenary. How can we vote on an issue as controversial as this without an agreement? How can we vote on an issue like this today? That’s impossible. It is not your desire that can sacrifice the democratic functioning of this House and the college of leaders, no”, criticized Guimarães.

The urgency vote ended with 293 votes in favor and 111 against, in addition to one abstention. The acronyms PT, PCdoB, PV, PSB, Psol, Rede and the government and majority leaders instructed supporters to vote against the proposal. The parties Novo, PL, the minority and opposition leaders and the bloc that brings together PP, PDT, União, PSDB, Cidadania, Avante, Solidariedade and PRD defended a favorable vote.

Representative Erika Hilton (Psol-SP) said that the vote was an “unpleasant surprise”. “This was not discussed at the meeting. We were taken by surprise because we had understood that the agenda that would be in the plenary at this time was a calm, almost consensual agenda, and suddenly the projects to criminalize social movements return. It is an unreasonable project, that attacks human rights, a project that should not be the first item on the agenda. What is the purpose of the agreements that we make as leaders for us to be surprised here with these harmful and horrible projects?”, he asked.

Erika Hilton, Psol leader in the Chamber of Deputies / Zeca Ribeiro/Chamber of Deputies

With the approval of urgency, party leaders are authorized to vote on the merits of PL 895 at any time. In the Chamber system, the project was attached to PL 709/2023 and other proposals, which means that they are being processed together. The group’s flagship is PL 709, which prohibits land occupants from receiving aid from federal programs. The text also prohibits the appointment to occupy permanent or commissioned public positions, as well as imposing other impediments to the segment.

CCJ

The offensive by the conservative wing of the Chamber against the MST also took place within the scope of the CCJ, which began on the afternoon of this Tuesday (16), amid protests, the analysis of a proposal that authorizes rural landowners to summon police forces to remove occupants of land from their areas without the need for judicial authorization, as determined by current legislation. Signed by former deputy André Amaral (Pros-PB), the text has a favorable opinion from the rapporteur, Victor Linhalis (Podemos-ES), who presented the vote in today’s session. The session was closed before the vote because the agenda was initiated in the House plenary, which meant that the debate on the text and the assessment of the PL’s merits were postponed until this Wednesday (17).

The proposal in question is bill (PL) 8262/2017, one of the texts of the anti-MST combo articulated by the Bolsonaro opposition. The group refers to this list of projects as the “Anti-Invasion Package.” During the CCJ session, parliamentarians from the progressive camp reacted to the attempt to vote on this and other proposals that seek to frame the movement. Also on the agenda this Tuesday, for example, PL 4183/2023, authored by deputy Coronel Assis (União-MS) with the support of 23 other signatories, which imposes on popular movements the obligation to have legal personality. This text also received a favorable vote from the rapporteur, Alfredo Gaspar (União-AL), but was not evaluated this Tuesday.

The president of the CCJ, Caroline de Toni (PL-SC), said, in a meeting with parliamentarians shortly before the collegiate session, that she sees the approval of the anti-MST PLs as a need to “give a response to Red April”.

Caroline de Toni (PL – SC), president of the CCJ / Renato Araújo/Chamber of Deputies

Patrus Ananias (PT-MG) stated that “this is a moment of regrettable setback”. “The commission is explaining its positions – a part of them, at least –, unfortunately with the support of the presidency. It is making a clear ideological choice and has even made it clear to us [em reunião] that today’s agenda has to do with Red April, as if the CCJ had a role in repressing social movements.” The PT member recalled that such projects have as their backdrop issues related to inequality in the countryside. “One of these issues is that of the property. We respect property rights, but they are not absolute. Sacred right is the right to life.”

Patrus Ananias (MG) coordinates the PT bench at the CCJ / Renato Araújo/Chamber of Deputies

Representative Célia Xakriabá (Psol-MG) was among the parliamentarians who raised their voice against the projects. She highlighted that, throughout history, indigenous peoples were decimated because, among other things, their fight for rights was oppressed by political actions that dialogue with the logic of the PLs included in the CCJ’s agenda. “This agenda that is at stake here talks a lot about the direct criminalization of social movements. If you really want to end the struggle in the countryside, with the MST’s struggle, you have to enforce the constitutional right to agrarian reform.”

For Chico Alencar (Psol-RJ), the political articulation against the MST is reminiscent of what he called “old coronelism”. “They make the CCJ a battlefield, but we are here to resist, to occupy and produce other proposals, which are not those of arresting and punishing those who fight for agrarian justice. This here is a test of resistance”, he told the Brazil in fact. Behind the scenes in the Chamber, the general reading is that, as it has a majority in the CCJ, the more conservative wing tends to obtain the approval of proposals that target the MST, although the consideration of some projects may take time.

“In the plenary, everything depends on the center, which is the balance. Maybe it will be more difficult there, but I don’t know. The mobilization of society is also very important in this process. I don’t risk making any predictions for the plenary, nor of victory or defeat. From now on it’s a fight”, says Alencar.

Editing: Thalita Pires