Inquiries could be ticking time bombs

Brazil’s Congress seems to be addicted to parliamentary inquiries: from football match-fixing to corporate bankruptcy, the Legislative branch has launched a slew of hearings committees that will grab attention for the coming months. 

But there is no inquiry as high-profile as the joint congressional investigation into the January 8 riots in Brasília, when hordes of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and vandalized government buildings protesting an election they incorrectly believed to be rigged.

Mr. Bolsonaro, though exiled in the U.S. at the time, was the ultimate instigator of the riot, be it directly or indirectly. Throughout his turbulent four-year team as president, he incited anti-democratic demonstrations on a number of occasions, and the crazed protesters who trashed the seats of government on January 8 were undeniably doing so in his name.

It is odd, therefore, that pro-Bolsonaro factions in Congress were the ones pushing for a congressional inquiry. Quickly realizing that the Lula government would be highly inconvenienced by a long and public “trial” in Congress — led by ideologically driven politicians, not professional investigators — the opposition did everything it could to launch such an inquiry.

The thinking was that, if it can fill the select committee with enough of its rabble-rousing members, the pro-Bolsonaro politicians could try to shift the overarching narrative surrounding January 8. With a sheer lack of proof — as is the case of the rigged election theory that fueled the riot in the first place — the far-right claims that the violence and vandalism of January 8 was all committed by infiltrated leftist agent provocateurs — and that the Lula government was in on the whole thing as well.

A fanciful theory, to say the least, but it could win some hearts and minds depending on how the congressional inquiry is conducted.

And for Lula, the slew of inquiries can only be negative. The government has much to approve in Congress, and lawmakers can’t exactly vote on bills when they’re grilling people in select committees …

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Jan. 8 committee seems an unavoidable nuisance for Lula

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