Lower house speaker dismisses petition to remove him as “theatrical”
The lower house speaker made the remark during a breakfast with reporters
The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, said today (Dec. 29) that the petition filed by Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot to remove him is theatrical. In his opinion, it is also a political rather than a legal move.
Cunha said he reviewed the 190 pages of the petition and wrote some ten pages rebutting the points in it. The Prosecutor-General mentioned 11 facts that he says prove that the deputy abuses his position as lower house speaker to harass congress and engage in illegal actions.
At a year-end breakfast with reporters, Cunha said that a decision on the impeachment case against President Dilma Rousseff will be made at the Chamber of Deputies by the end of March. If the case is approved, it will then be submitted to the Senate for approval and trial.
According to Cunha, even if the government rectifies its deferred payments to public banks, a practice that was rejected by the Federal Court of s (TCU), this will not change the course of the impeachment case against Rousseff. One of the main points in the impeachment petition that the speaker says ensured its acceptance by the Chamber of Deputies was that the government ed decrees this year that are in violation of the Budget Law and have not been approved by Congress.
“We haven't considered anything taking place in [Rousseff's] previous istration [2011-2014]—our decision to accept [the impeachment petition] was based on decrees issued this year that are not in accordance with the Budget Law,” he said.
Yesterday (28), the acting National Treasury Secretary, Otávio Ladeira, said the government is planning to repay liabilities pointed out by the Court of s related to deferred transfers to state banks and to the Guarantee Fund for Length of Service (FGTS)—a severance compensation fund collected by the government and held in Federal Savings Bank s on behalf of employees, into which employers pay a monthly percentage of their employees' wages.
Eduardo Cunha answered questions not only about Brazil's current political and economic scenario, but also about his role as the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. He said he is confident that he will be able to complete his tenure as both a member of parliament and the lower house speaker.
Talking about the ethical misconduct case against him, Cunha said it is a “political process that has to be dealt with.”
About Rousseff's government's relationship with his party, PMDB, Eduardo Cunha said that one of the party's main grievances is that Congress have never been engaged by the government in such matters as economic policy-making.
“In fact, we haven't been engaged [by the government] in anything at all. That's our grievance. We're responsible for the political and economic consequences but we're not responsible for making the policy. The only thing the government turned to PMDB for was to the government's measures in Congress votings,” Cunha said.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Lower house speaker dismisses petition to remove him as “theatrical”
