President of Chamber of Deputies says he is working to alleviate crisis with executive branch

When the president of Brazil travels abroad he (or she, as is the
case nowadays) is substituted by someone in the regular line of
succession. At the end of March, the president of the Chamber of
Deputies, Marco Maia (PT-RS) worked in the presidential office in the
Palacio do Planalto for a few days while both Dilma Rousseff and the
vice president, Michel Temer, were absent from the country (Dilma was in
India at the BRICS summit and Temer was in South Korea at the Nuclear
Security summit).

During that period, Maia told reporters that he was working to ease the
crisis between the Congress and the executive branch. Among his goals
was to reach agreements that would make it possible to have votes on the
General Law for the World Soccer Cup (“Lei Geral da Copa”) and the Land
Use Law (“Codigio Florestal”).

The crisis Maia referred to began in March when the Senate rejected the
nomination of Bernardo Figueiredo for a seat on the board of the
National Transportation Agency (“Agência Nacional de Transportes
Terrestres – ANTT”). Figueiredo was a personal choice by president Dilma
Rousseff.

“The fact that I am president of Brazil for three days does not make my
responsibilities as a federal deputy or the president of the Chamber of
Deputies any less. In fact, I am busy with conversations, talking and
listening to political leaders because we need a rapid solution,” said
Maia.

The acting president (“presidente em exercício”) denied that the
executive branch was going to interfere in the choice of the new
president of the Senate. There were reports that Dilma was working to
have the minister of Mines and Energy, Edson Lobão, become a candidate
for the position that was also being sought after, in a very public
campaign, by senator Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL).

“Nobody is engineering anything. The election will only be in 2013.
This is not the time to begin dealing with this. Nobody is campaigning
or moving… In the Chamber we are not even discussing this matter. Nobody
is dealing with this issue at this time,” declared Maia.

This is the third time that Maia has been the acting president. He told
reporters that he really liked the job. “This is something that any
Brazilian would like to have the privilege of doing. I am going to
recommend that Dilma and Temer do a lot of traveling.”

[translator’s note: Maia delivered on at least part of his promise: the
Lei Geral da Copa was passed by the Chamber of Deputies. It was far
from what the government (executive branch) or FIFA wanted, but it was
approved and now goes to the Senate. As for the very controversial
Codigo Florestal, it is still being negotiated]