Happy Monday! The upcoming week promises to be an eventful one, with the government trying to block a committee of hearings into its pandemic response, while trying to untie the 2021 budget knot.
Covid hearings: Bolsonaro tries to make lemonade
Since Thursday evening, the government has been working to put out a fire started by the Supreme Court, after one justice ordered the Senate to launch a hearings committee into the federal administration’s pandemic response. President Bolsonaro’s multi-headed strategy — explained by Brasília correspondent Débora Álvares — includes calling for constitutional changes to limit justices’ powers, convincing allies to launch their own investigations into the Supreme Court, and trying to kill the creation of the committee altogether.
- On Sunday, a new front came to light. The president is trying to pressure senators into changing the hearing committee’s scope, expanding the investigation to how governors and mayors have managed the pandemic.
Recordings. Senator Jorge Kajuru, one of the hearings’ proponents, published a recording of a phone conversation with Mr. Bolsonaro in which the president expresses concerns about the Senate fabricating a “devious report.” Turning the investigation toward states and cities would be — in the president’s words — a way...