The candidate for re-election to the Presidency of the Republic by the PL, Jair Bolsonaro, said that he intends to negotiate the extinction of the so-called secret budget in a next term. He was interviewed on the afternoon of this Monday (24), by the portal Metrópoles.
“This budget, which some call secret, took power from me. In the past, I released amendments. Now it has become imposing. And the owner of the pen, owner of R$ 16 billion, is the rapporteur. The real owner of this budget is not me, it is the Brazilian parliament. With a new parliament, much more for the centre-right, I intend to negotiate, next year, if I am re-elected, the extinction of this so-called secret budget. It’s exhausting for everyone and I’m the one paying the bill,” said the president.
Asked how this negotiation with Congress would be, to reduce or extinguish the secret budget, Bolsonaro said he will dialogue with political leaders.
“We will negotiate with parliament to what extent we can discuss who will release this resource. At the moment it’s a person, a federal deputy one year, a senator the next, who has more power than I do. My budget is completely plastered. Nowadays, a federal deputy or a senator has become the owner of the most important function in Brazil. This is not fair. If you seek, through LAI [Lei de Acesso da Informação], you will see certain names sending R$200, R$300, R$400, R$500 million to your state. We don’t know for sure where this feature goes. The CGU [Controladoria Geral da União] follow up,” he explained.
The president admitted that the current budget system has removed powers from the Executive and that he will negotiate or, if that is not possible, veto the allocation of funds, counting on a more favorable political composition.
“I can’t keep losing powers. Parliamentarians already have approximately R$ 15 million per year for tax amendments. It has a lot of well-targeted appeal, but I don’t want to keep losing power like I did. Seeking a change in budgeting next year. Let’s try to negotiate, reduce this amount, pass a part to me. If it is not possible, I go to the veto. Overriding the veto will be made more difficult by the profile of the new parliament,” she said.
Bolsonaro considered that he could win the lost vote in the first round, when he was around 6 million votes behind Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the PT, with the possible demobilization of voters who voted for the left but will not return to the polls and also with reinforcement with the religious electorate. According to the president, his voters are very loyal and should give a strong response on Sunday (30).
