A few days before the election of the President of the Chamber of Deputies for the 2021-2022 biennium, President Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) defended the election of the head of the center, the federal deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), for the command of the Legislative Assembly.
The statements were made on Thursday (28) in the town of Propriá (102 km from Aracaju), where the president participated in the opening ceremony for traffic on the new bridge under the São Francisco river that connects the states of Sergipe and Alagoas, electoral base of Lira.
“Friends of Sergipe, friends of Alagoas, God willing, we will have the second man in the hierarchical line of Brazil, elected here in the North-East by the Chamber of Deputies. Congressman Arthur Lira. By the will of God, [será] our president ”, declared the president at the end of his speech.
In recent weeks, the president has participated directly in the articulations around the candidacies of deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL) for the presidency of the Chamber and of Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG) for the command of the neighboring House. The vote takes place next Monday (1st).
In an attempt to elect Lira, who is one of the leaders of the center, the Planalto Palace has, since the end of last year, signaled with positions and amendments and threatened to remove them from the federal machine. candidates of politicians of federal deputies with acronyms like MDB and DEM.
Bolsonaro also took advantage of the event to stroke Chancellor Ernesto Araújo, who accompanied him during the ceremony.
The foreign minister is under pressure because of his clashes with China and the United States and could resign as part of a likely ministerial reform.
“I always say that if my minister is praised by the media, he risks being fired. Without wanting to generalize our media. We have good journalists. But the media criticize our Ernesto Araújo all the time. Our man who does public relations with the whole world. “
At the event, the President was accompanied by Senator Alagoas and former President Fernando Collor de Melo (Pros), who stressed that the President has the support of the political class and the National Congress.
“At no time will you be discouraged by these criticisms. It’s the rain and whoever has the coat you have doesn’t have to fear this rain and this storm, ”said Collor, noting that the president has the support of the people and the National Congress.
Sergipe Governor Belivaldo Chagas (PSD) also attended the ceremony, which supporters of the president strongly opposed.
A few minutes before the start of the ceremony, Bolsonaro spent around 20 minutes greeting the supporters. He also left the event’s security perimeter to greet the truck drivers who were traveling along the BR-101 highway.
The nod to the category comes as fuel readjustment has revived the threat of a truckers strike, a move predicted by some groups for February 1. The closure is minimized by the government.
After the act, the president again greeted supporters and truckers. With his entourage, he went to lunch in a restaurant on the edge of the BR-101.
The work to duplicate the bridge between Propriá, in Sergipe, and Porto Real do Colégio, in Alagoas, began in 2013, under the then president Dilma Rousseff (PT) and its main structure was completed in 2017, under the government Michel Temer (MDB), with investments of 126 million reais.
In May 2019, the Bolsonaro government began to duplicate the concrete paved connection road and the bridgehead, a stage of the work where the promontories of the structures are anchored to level them at the level of the highway.
A total of 21 million reais was invested by the Ministry of Infrastructure at this stage of the work, which lasted from May 2019 to January 2021.
The new bridge is 860 meters long, 24 wide and consists of four lanes, forming a new connection between Alagoas and Sergipe via the BR-101. In total, 50 km of the federal road in Alagoas and an additional 26 km in Sergipe have already been duplicated.