President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), this Thursday afternoon (26), at Palácio da Alvorada, his official residence. The meeting took place around 3:30 pm and lasted about an hour. 
According to an update on Lula’s official agenda, the minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, and the government leader in the Chamber of Deputies, José Guimarães (PT-CE), were also in Alvorada around the same time.
The meeting’s agenda was not informed by the advisors, but it took place days after a decision by Minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), suspend payment of around R$4.2 billion in commission amendments that would not have met transparency criteria for their execution. The court decision was published on Monday (23), the day before the Christmas holiday.
In the order, Dino also ordered the opening of an investigation by the Federal Police (PF), following a request from the PSOL, which was based on suspicions of irregularities in the allocation of resources for amendments from the Legislative’s permanent committees. Recently, Dino’s decision, defining transparency and traceability criteria for the release of amendments, was unanimously endorsed by the STF.
Because of the meeting with Lula, the president of the Chamber postponed a videoconference meeting that would have taken place with party leadersto deal with the elections for the Board of Directors of the Chamber, scheduled for February of next year. The main candidate to succeed Lira, who has support of the president himself, at the end of his term, is federal deputy Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), whose candidacy has already received the formal support of 17 parties. The composition of the other positions for the Board of Directors is still under negotiation between the benches.
