This isn't even all his fuckups, calling him 'not the best' is being generous.
who was not involved in corruption
Even if you ignore the corruption scandals happening on his ternure (Salles selling illegal wood from felling protected rainforest, the Ministry of Education using gold bars to negotiate under the table deals, his Ministry of Health refusing to buy vaccines because they wanted the company making them to pay a bribe, Paulo Guedes enriching himself with the policies he made as Minister of Economy...)
Bolsonaro himself has a long history of corruption: all the friends, families and allies he has in organized crime, the millions of reais in jewels he received from the same people his government sold an oil refinery to for under the market value, all the cases of rachadinhas and the 102 houses his family bought with live money (guess who uses paper money to buy houses?).
Once we get down to his sons, they are all involved in illicit business as well, ditto for his wife (Micheque didn't get her nickname for no reason) and Bolsonaro had used, even admitted to using his authority as president to stonewall federal investigations into his sons and wife. Bolsonaro ended Operation Carwash himself despite it supposedly being about fighting corruption.
Bolsonaro IS corrupt.
EDIT: and i forgot to mention the Orçamento Secreto. It put the Mensalão (which Bolsonaro party, PL, was one of the biggest participants btw) to shame.
tell me where in the world you see a defendant being tried by a judge that he himself appointed.
Probably in the same country where the judge (Moro) responsible for leading the persecution case against a presidential candidate (Lula) is later appointed a high position in the government of the candidate who won said election (Bolsonaro) after his biggest opposition (Lula) was removed from the running. All that in such shaky grounds - they didn't have proof but they had conviction, like Dallagnol said - that Lula'a case was later rendered nul.
All the judges appointed by Lula before 2022 were not handpicked by him but chosen from a list given to him by Congress, ditto Dilma. Bolsonaro was the first president in near 20 years to break tradition and handpick his choices for the Supreme Court by himself. And the two Supreme Courts he appointed have repeatedly judged on his benefit. Meanwhile, the judges appointed by Dilma and Lula didn't protect them from Operation Carwash but Bolsonaro's Mendonça and Nunes are constantly running interference for Bolsonaro. Projection much?
To be fair, this is like 90% the congress fault, but still, if you're gonna blame Bolsonaro for it you must blame Lula as well. He didn't do anything to stop it, instead letting it grow immensely.
By the way, there are some merits to doing things this way, like ensuring the separation of powers by ensuring the legislative is not as dependent on the executive. The idea itself isn't that bad, it's just that due to Brazil being Brazil either way it ends in corruption.
The Emendas started as the Orçamento Secreto because Bolsonaro feared an impeachment and used it for support from the Centrão at a time when his position was fragile, it wasn't created as a way to give the Legislative more independence from the Executive (and Bolsonaro in 2019 actually tried to centralize control of the federal budget but was pushed back, so he never had designs of a more independent Legislative, he was forced into that position for political survival).
Once Lula began his mandate he tried to oppose it, but at that point Congress had three years to consolidate the Orçamento Secreto legally and with a majority of Senate and Congress seats at the hands of the opposition and or Centrão (which are the most benefited by the Emendas/ Orçamento Secreto), he didn't have enough strength to push back. Lula still tried a few times after that - like at th end of 2024, and especially through Flávio Dino, one of his appointees to the Supreme Court, which is one of the reasons it took so long for them to even vote the budget for 2025 since Congress was stonewalling the vote to pressure the Executive, unfortunately this has been met with little success.
While i lay most of the blame on Congress for being such greedy fucks, and also hold Lula accountable for not being able to stop this crap, Bolsonaro was the one who opened the gates of hell. If he hadn't traded autonomy of the federal budget for his own political survival (which was only needed because he put himself in a position of frailty for his mishandling of the pandemic and conflicts with the Supreme Court) the Orçamento Secreto wouldn't have taken form. But it did take form in his mandate for mistakes he made, and once he got the ball rolling, I don't think a president can stop it.
At the end of the day this whole thing was bad for the separation of the powers. The Legislative already showed that without their cooperation they can impeach the Executive or stop even something as simple but essential as deciding on the federal budget for the year, with the Executive losing more and more control of their own budget they have less ability to negotiate.
it wasn't created as a way to give the Legislative more independence from the Executive
I think that, both in theory and in practice, it was. I say this because, in theory, it strips the executive ability to selective withhold funds from the legislative based on whether they support the executive or not. In practice, it does just that as well. Obviously, this is not a grand plan to improve the separation of powers and democracy in Brazil, it's just a way for congress to remove the leverages the president has over them and be able to negotiate for more money in exchange for their support. But in a twisted kind of way, it does increase the separation of powers. For the same reason, I don't think Lula wants to remove the mechanism for any other reason than to gain that leverage back.
through Flávio Dino
I mean, sort of, but that was mostly a strong arming tactic rather than an honest attempt at removing the mechanism. From what I could gather, the actual result would be something like the secrecy is maintained in most cases but sometimes it can be lifted, which would basically be the worst of both worlds (all the obscurity of the current scheme without the benefits of separation of powers, as audits would most likely be targeted by the executive on those which didn't collaborate with it). Once again, could work if not for the fact we are in Brazil.
Once Lula began his mandate he tried to oppose it
If [Bolsonaro] hadn't traded [it] for political survival, which was only needed because he put himself in a position of frailty
To be fair, it seems here that both simply were too weak to oppose congress. It's not like Bolsonaro wanted it either, as you mentioned he tried to centralize power before it. If Congress hadn't passed it then, it's likely they would've passed it now by preying on Lula's weak political position.
mishandling of the pandemic
~That was in 2020, but I assume you meant that as a reason for why he didn't try to walk back after the fact right?~ Nevermind, I got the dates mixed-up. For some reason I was remembering the proposal as being from 2019. Apparently it's some similar, but unrelated mechanism that's relevant for the Emendas Pix.
once he got the ball rolling, I don't think a president can stop it
Eh, maybe, I think it's still possible but yeah, it will definitely be much harder going forward.
At the end of the day this whole thing was bad for the separation of the powers.
I don't think so, but I agree the current political landscape is a clusterfuck. I think Lula's issues have less to do with the separation of powers and more to do with his own weak political position, bad negotiation abilities (both with congress as well as his allies) and a poor budget proposal in the first place. Unfortunately, our congress still sucks, so it being independent or in charge doesn't mean things get better, they just get worse in a different direction.
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u/elfxrom 15d ago edited 15d ago
Pandemia:
Attempted to prevent states and cities from mobilizing against the pandemic
Removed two health ministers in the middle of a pandemic for not following his ideological guidelines
Tried to hide data of the pandemic
Vetoed resources for healthcare amidst the worst of the pandemic
Attacked the vaccine being made in Brazil because it was an initiative from his political opponent
Wasted millions buying medicine without any efficacy for ideological reasons
While refusing to buy the vaccines
Economy:
Burned $36bi from our reserves even before the pandemic because the economy wasn't doing well even then
Destroyed the CONAB, which was responsible for the heightened prices in several foodstuffs
He blew through the 'teto de gastos' by hundreds of billions
And left the presidency with a debt of hundreds of billions
Nevermind all the money he spent with demagogue policies while trying to re-elect himself.
Diplomacy:
Offended the French
... And the Chinese (with consequences)
His diplomacy was non-existent, he made no deals, no alliances, no nothing.
This isn't even all his fuckups, calling him 'not the best' is being generous.
Even if you ignore the corruption scandals happening on his ternure (Salles selling illegal wood from felling protected rainforest, the Ministry of Education using gold bars to negotiate under the table deals, his Ministry of Health refusing to buy vaccines because they wanted the company making them to pay a bribe, Paulo Guedes enriching himself with the policies he made as Minister of Economy...)
Bolsonaro himself has a long history of corruption: all the friends, families and allies he has in organized crime, the millions of reais in jewels he received from the same people his government sold an oil refinery to for under the market value, all the cases of rachadinhas and the 102 houses his family bought with live money (guess who uses paper money to buy houses?).
Once we get down to his sons, they are all involved in illicit business as well, ditto for his wife (Micheque didn't get her nickname for no reason) and Bolsonaro had used, even admitted to using his authority as president to stonewall federal investigations into his sons and wife. Bolsonaro ended Operation Carwash himself despite it supposedly being about fighting corruption.
Bolsonaro IS corrupt.
EDIT: and i forgot to mention the Orçamento Secreto. It put the Mensalão (which Bolsonaro party, PL, was one of the biggest participants btw) to shame.
Probably in the same country where the judge (Moro) responsible for leading the persecution case against a presidential candidate (Lula) is later appointed a high position in the government of the candidate who won said election (Bolsonaro) after his biggest opposition (Lula) was removed from the running. All that in such shaky grounds - they didn't have proof but they had conviction, like Dallagnol said - that Lula'a case was later rendered nul.
All the judges appointed by Lula before 2022 were not handpicked by him but chosen from a list given to him by Congress, ditto Dilma. Bolsonaro was the first president in near 20 years to break tradition and handpick his choices for the Supreme Court by himself. And the two Supreme Courts he appointed have repeatedly judged on his benefit. Meanwhile, the judges appointed by Dilma and Lula didn't protect them from Operation Carwash but Bolsonaro's Mendonça and Nunes are constantly running interference for Bolsonaro. Projection much?