Today, Congress set to ignore inquiry into the Bolsonaro administration’s pandemic response. A new emergency aid program nears completion. The president tackles the banks to pay for fuel tax breaks.
Congress to let Bolsonaro off the hook for pandemic response
Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said on Monday that launching a congressional hearings committee to investigate the government’s coronavirus response would be “counterproductive.” Opposition senators gathered enough support to set up a parliamentary inquiry — but it can only be created once the Senate President presents it to the floor, which he has no legal deadline to do.
- Elected to lead the Senate with Mr. Bolsonaro’s support, Mr. Pacheco promised the president “political stability” for the remainder of his term.
Why it matters. The only time the Bolsonaro administration has responded in accordance with scientific evidence is when it was cornered by Congress or the Supreme Court. By not putting pressure on the president, Mr. Pacheco gives him no incentive to tackle the crisis as the pandemic reaches its worst moment in Brazil.
New spike. The so-called Brazilian variant of the virus is, according to University of São Paulo researchers, 2.2 times more contagious and can reinfect two-thirds of patients who...