Pension reform in Brazil | Vote for Dip …

Pension reform is progressing in Brazil. Invited by President Jair Bolsonaro, it was approved on Wednesday during the first of two votes in the Chamber of Deputies. The text that hardens the pension system was approved by 379 votes to 131, exceeding the minimum of 308 required by the constitutional reforms.

The president of the chamber, Rodrigo Maia, exclaimed visibly moved: "It is approved". Maia, from the Democratic Party (near the center-right), took advantage of this triumph to claim the role of the Congress, one of the most discredited institutions in the country.

"Our leaders lack respect, they are wrongly criticized, but it is these leaders who carry out reforms in Brazil," said Maia. The country's major media and various badysts have stressed its important role in obtaining partial approval.

After this initial approval, certain amendments to the text that, for example, reduce the minimum contribution period for women aged 20 to 15 and the minimum age required for the police to receive the benefit should be voted.

In any case, the reform must be submitted to a second vote in the House, probably before the two-week parliamentary recess, which begins on 18 July. From there, he must go to the Senate, where he will be subjected to a double vote and a three-fifths majority.

The system that the government wants to put in place establishes a minimum retirement age (62 for women and 65 for men) and a 40-year contribution period to take full advantage of it.

"Brazil is getting closer and closer to the path of employment and prosperity," tweeted president Jair Bolsonaro. The strength of the result in the House is largely explained by the desertions on the benches of two center-left groups: eight from the Democratic Labor Party and eleven from the Socialist Party voted for the reform, as well as the two of the Green Party.

On the other hand, the seats of the Workers' Party, the Communist Party and the Party of Socialism and Freedom (the councilor badbadinated for Rio Marielle Franco) were unanimous in rejecting the reform. Before the vote, the PT had sent to the Attorney General's Office a request to open an investigation against Bolsonaro and two of his ministers, calling the reform "abusive". seriousness of political and financial power ".

Parties opposing the reform point out, among other things, that increasing the number of years of contributions will exclude millions of people from the system, in a country where one-quarter of private sector workers navigate informality.