by Colin Mansell
“Any other Congressman would not have resisted the pressures from the Planalto Palace. We are going to save him”, explained Congressman Dirceu Sperafico (PP-PR) to the site Congress in Focus
Federal Congressmen are already articulating a pardon for the Leader of the House, Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) if the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff (PT) is approved this Sunday. Cunha is facing hearings in the House Ethics Committee for having lied to the Petrobras Hearings in March 2015, when he stated he had no accounts in any tax havens.
The articulators of the pardon argue that the role of Cunha as the conductor within the House of the process to impeach the President justifies that he be saved by his peers. “Eduardo Cunha played a fundamental role in our approving the impeachment of the President. He deserves to be pardoned”, Osmar Serraglio (PMDB-PR) defended. “Any other Congressman would not have resisted the pressures from the Planalto Palace. We are going to save him”, explained Congressman Dirceu Sperafico (PP-PR).
Despite the grave accusations against him, the Leader of the House has the backing of at least 200 Congressmen faithful to him, many of them belonging to the BBB or beef, bullet and Bible sectors. Besides the leaders of the PMDB and PSC parties, the latter party led by the evangelical sector, the pardoning of Cunha has sympathizers in the PR, PP, PRB parties, the last one being linked to the Universal Church, as well as the SD, DEM and PSDB parties.
Swiss investigators identified deposits of US$ 4.8 million and of 1.3 million Swiss francs in two accounts identified by them as belonging to Cunha and his wife, the journalist Cláudia Cruz. The House Leader is also a defendant in a Supreme Court case under accusations of corruption and money laundering.
The articulation to save Cunha has already taken its first steps within the House, with the resignation of Congressman Fausto Pinato (PP-SP) from the seat held on the Ethics Committee. He was the first rapporteur of the House Leader case and defended that the investigations be proceeded. During the elaboration of his report, Pinato made statements to the Federal Police saying he had received threats against him. Congresswoman Tia Eron (PRB-BA) was nominated in his place, an evangelist like Cunha and his declared admirer.
With information from Congresso em Foco and Revista Fórum