RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Archyde.com Foundation) – Brazilian federal police chief Alexandre Saraiva was demoted last year after leading the nation’s largest crackdown on illegal logging in the Amazon. He wanted to protect the country’s rainforests in the political arena, so he ran for the House of Representatives.
But Saraiba and three environmental officials who were seeking seats in parliamentary elections on Thursday were all defeated. Several of the winning candidates have ties to President Bolsonaro’s government and have been criticized by activists for embezzling environmental policies.
“My conclusion is that the Brazilian people don’t really care about the Amazon,” Saraiva said. During his campaign, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) candidate claimed it was his “civic duty” to stop deforestation, which has skyrocketed under the far-right Bolsonaro government.
In the presidential election, former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva won 48.4% of the vote, while incumbent Jair Bolsonaro won 43.2%, showing better performance than polls predicted. .
A runoff between the top two candidates is scheduled for October 30. Lula has pledged to increase environmental protection while promoting economic development in the Amazon region, while Bolsonaro has advocated expanding commercial farming and mining development in protected areas.
The election is seen internationally as an important opportunity to halt the rapid destruction of the Amazon rainforest and curb climate change, nature destruction and wildlife loss.
Bolsonaro’s ruling Liberal Party (PL) was the biggest winner in the 513-seat parliamentary election, winning 99 seats. Lula’s Labor Party (PT) won 68 seats.
Even more surprising, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party won 13 of the 27 seats up for re-election in the federal Senate. Lula’s Labor Party won just nine seats.
Among the winners are Bolsonaro’s vice-president Hamilton Mourao and five cabinet ministers, including former Agriculture Minister Teresa Cristina.
Many of these winners support Mr. Bolsonaro’s policies that have led to increased deforestation in the Amazon, expanding agriculture and resource extraction.
Carlos Minck, who served as environment minister in Lula’s government from 2008 to 2010, would have a strong foothold if Bolsonaro is re-elected, and could pass legislation that failed in his first term. say you can.
“Bolsonaro is the biggest environmental enemy,” said Mink, who ran for the Socialist Party and was re-elected to the Rio de Janeiro parliament.
While the Bolsonaro government has allowed large-scale expansion of farms, ranches and mines in the Amazon and other natural forest areas of Brazil, Bolsonaro himself has repeatedly justified his environmental policies.
Mink said he was surprised by the landslide victory of Liberal candidate Ricardo Salles, who previously served as environment minister under Bolsonaro.
Salles was elected to the House of Representatives, but his number of votes was about half that of former presidential candidate Marina Silva, who ran for the Brazilian Sustainability Network Party (REDE) constituency in São Paulo and was elected to the House of Representatives. It was three times as many.
Silva, an Amazonian-born environmentalist, was environment minister in Lula’s government from 2003 to 2008. Deforestation in the Amazon slowed by almost half during this period.
Since Bolsonaro took office, deforestation in the Amazon has increased to the highest level in 15 years, with 7,135 square kilometers cleared between January and August this year, according to government satellite data. This is an increase of 19% compared to the same period last year.
In 2020, Salles was criticized by international environmentalists for recommending that governments ease environmental restrictions while the public was focused on the pandemic.
Salles stepped down from the cabinet in June 2021 after being investigated for obstructing a police investigation into illegal logging in the Amazon.
The big win increases the chances of Salles getting a seat on Congress’ environment committee, according to José Niemeyer, a political analyst who studies international relations at Rio de Janeiro’s Ivumec University. He could even become chairman of the committee.
This committee is responsible for determining which environmental legislation is put to Congress for vote.
“Sales will have a lot of power,” Niemeyer said.
Political experts, however, say the president is ultimately in control of environmental policy. The president has the power to approve or reject legislation passed by Congress.
In his manifesto, Mr. Lula has a policy of “net-zero” deforestation. At the final presidential debate before the election on Sunday, Mr. Lula pledged to ban small-scale illegal mining and regenerate degraded ranches for agriculture instead of opening new ones. .
During his presidency, Mr Bolsonaro kept an election promise not to approve new indigenous territories. He also introduced a bill to legalize mining development in these areas. He also supports a bill to expand the conversion of squattered public lands to private land.
Bolsonaro said in his bid for re-election he would strike a balance between “environmental protection and sustainable and just economic growth for all”.
The former president is known for his superior negotiating skills, while environmentalists say Congress may resist environmental policies he might propose if elected. He analyzes that he will be able to win centrists to his side, including members of the Liberal Party who value pragmatism.
Few candidates have been elected to Congress on the grounds of environmental protection. But Brenda Britto, associate researcher at the Amazon Institute for Humans and the Environment (Imazon), a nonprofit that tracks deforestation, said environmental lawmakers like Silva are highly qualified and have a beneficial impact. I’m talking about the possibility of being given
Political analysts said the left fought hard in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections as center- and center-right parties lost seats to Mr Bolsonaro’s far-right party.
Politically to the left of Lula’s Labor Party, the Socialist Liberal Party (PSOL) rose by four to a record 12 seats.
The PSOL has been the most vocal critic of Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.
Among the PSOL winners are indigenous women Sonia Guajajala and Celia Zakriava. Joenia Wapichana, the only Indigenous person in Congress prior to her election, failed to win re-election.
“There are 150 bills in Congress that are negative in terms of indigenous rights,” said Krebel Caripuna, executive coordinator of the Brazilian Association of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), which represents many of the 900,000 indigenous people living in Brazil. There are more than that,” he said.
“Our fight is to derail these anti-Indigenous bills,” Kalipuna said.
Experts and polls say Lula is likely to win, but Saraiba said Bolsonaro could not be ruled out.
“Lula will probably win, but I don’t think it’s an absolute certainty. The big victory of the far-right candidate in the parliamentary elections will give momentum to Bolsonaro’s campaign,” said Saraiba.
A Bolsonaro victory would mean the end of the Brazilian Amazon, Saraiva said. “This regime is clearly an accomplice in deforestation,” he added.
(Reporters by Fabio Teixeira and Andre Cabette Fabio, translated by Eacleren)