Weekly Report - 8 May 2014 (WR-14-18)

Faced with competing demands from both the government and the opposition about whether to launch full congressional inquiries (CPI) into irregularities at the state oil company Petrobras and the São Paulo and Distrito Federal metros, Renan Calheiros, the president of congress, decided to initiate both. The two CPIs will be ‘mixed’; with the investigators comprising members of both the lower chamber and the senate. While the opposition hopes the Petrobras CPI will humiliate the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and President Dilma Rousseff in the run-up to October’s election, the government hopes the investigation into the São Paulo and Distrito Federal metros will undermine trust in the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) of presidential hopeful, Aécio Neves.