Brazil & Southern Cone - September 2007 (ISSN 1471-4431

The "mensalão" scandal which revealed high-level corruption in the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores, has left the party with it's reputation in tatters. The PT, which always prided itself for being different from the majority of other Brazilian parties - "a party with an ethical obligations" - saw its whiter-than-white reputation ruined after its leadership was accused of corrupting the same parties it always accused of dishonesty. The PT's recent role in the acquittal of Senator Renan Calheiros (see previous page) led the party to "sink lower in the mud" according to the Brazilian press. 

For the Brazilian press there is no doubt that PT senators either voted to acquit Calheiros or abstained from voting. The influential current affairs magazine Veja ran long articles explaining how the PT has abandoned its professed ethical baggage to submit to the interests of the government. In this way the PT has also submitted to the interests of its unprincipled allies; the vast majority of parties that have backed any government in order to win privileges and, essentially, gain access to federal money, both legally and illegally. 

This submission to the government and the interests of other parties within President Lula da Silva's governing coalition could be sensed during the PT's national convention in late August. Indeed, Lula and his interlocutors in the PT's ruling faction, the Campo Majoritário, barred any discussion over his succession. The PT's left wing factions wanted to put forward names to succeed Lula in 2011 to "purify" the party. Lula and the Campo Majoritário, however, did not allow the discussion to go on because it could "undermine the coalition". 

The fact is, allied parties, especially the all-encompassing Partido do Movimento Democrático, have the necessary ambition to put forward a presidential candidate with Lula's blessing. The PMDB leader, Michel Temer, was clear that he did not want to see any discussion over Lula's prospective successor within the PT when he declared "we must live well together, at least until [next year's] municipal elections, in order not to undermine the coalition". The message was received. 

Significantly, the PMDB, the largest party in congress, is the party of Calheiros, who threatened the government with the withdrawal of support from his political associates if the PT did not back his acquittal. Lula pressured PT senators to do anything but have him acquitted. Calheiros heaped on the pressure using different tack: he reminded several PT (as well as senators of other parties) of their own hand in potential corruption scandals. 

For instance, Calheiros leaked information that PT senator Tião Viana employed a member of the PT's directorate who had never turned up to work, paying her R$6,000 (US$3,200) monthly. Another one threatened was Serys Slessarenko, a PT senator for Mato Grosso do Sul, whose son-in-law was involved in the sanguessuga scandal. [BSC-07-05] 

The influential Aloizio Mercadande and Idele Salvatti, the latter the leader of the government in the senate, were also threatened: Calheiros gave hints he would allow the opposition to install a parliamentary investigative committee into the shady disbursement of government funds to NGOs, which Salvatti has links to, and to resurrect the involvement of Mercadante's aides in the so-called "dossiergate", just prior to the presidential election in 2006. [BSC-06-10]

• Dirceu
  President Lula da Silva gave an interview to The New York Times in which he declared "as far as I know there is no proof that Dirceu committed the crime [of which] he is accused". Lula is referring to his former chief of staff, José Dirceu, who is accused of being the "gang's leader" in the "mensalão" corruption scandal. Lula's declaration was understood as a signal which may pardon his former associate if Dirceu is found guilty by the supreme court before he leaves office.