Brazilian Congress takes a rain check on January 8 inquiry

After intense lobbying from the federal government, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (who also presides over Congress) postponed a joint congressional sitting in which he would have kickstarted the process that would allow the pro-Jair Bolsonaro opposition to get a select panel on the January 8 riots off the ground. 

Initially, allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wanted Congress to investigate the storming and ransacking of government buildings by far-right rioters. The administration changed its stance out of fear that the far-right opposition would hijack the investigation to firehose public discourse with falsehoods. 

These fears have been proven right, with allies of former President Bolsonaro trying to muddy the waters over who was responsible for the events, falsely claiming that the riots were sparked by leftist agent provocateurs who “infiltrated” an otherwise peaceful protest.

Officially, the sitting was postponed due to delays around a government bill detailing how to pay for the nursing floor wage Congress passed last year. Joint sittings do not have a defined periodicity and there is no timetable for when both chambers of Congress will be convened again together. 

Meanwhile, the government is trying to coax some of the 194 congresspeople and 37 senators who sponsored the creation of the panel to rescind their support for the investigation. That is a huge task, given that the minimum threshold for setting up a select panel sits at 171 House members and 27 senators.

Allowing the panel to move forward will certainly create a lot of political noise for the government and cost it political capital. Four months after Lula took office, there has still been no congressional vote on any controversial topic. The ruling coalition has yet to be tested, and more than 60 percent of House seats are taken by politicians who are ideologically fluid, making the political landscape very uncertain.

Meanwhile in the courts, the investigation of the riots continues. The Supreme Court is deciding this week on whether the first 100 accused should face trial for seditious conspiracy, forming an armed criminal association, and damaging federal property and historic landmarks. 

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