Luana Lourenço       Reporter Agência Brasil  (published on March 27)

Brasília – When the president of Brazil travels abroad he (or she, as is the case nowadays) is substituted by someone in the regular line of succession. At the end of March, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marco Maia (PT-RS) worked in the presidential office in the Palacio do Planalto for a few days while both Dilma Rousseff and the vice president, Michel Temer, were absent from the country (Dilma was in India at the BRICS summit and Temer was in South Korea at the Nuclear Security summit).

During that period, Maia told reporters that he was working to ease the crisis between the Congress and the executive branch. Among his goals was to reach agreements that would make it possible to have votes on the General Law for the World Soccer Cup (“Lei Geral da Copa”) and the Land Use Law (“Codigio Florestal”).

The crisis Maia referred to began in March when the Senate rejected the nomination of Bernardo Figueiredo for a seat on the board of the National Transportation Agency (“Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres – ANTT”). Figueiredo was a personal choice by president Dilma Rousseff.

“The fact that I am president of Brazil for three days does not make my responsibilities as a federal deputy or the president of the Chamber of Deputies any less. In fact, I am busy with conversations, talking and listening to political leaders because we need a rapid solution,” said Maia.

The acting president (“presidente em exercício”) denied that the executive branch was going to interfere in the choice of the new president of the Senate. There were reports that Dilma was working to have the minister of Mines and Energy, Edson Lobão, become a candidate for the position that was also being sought after, in a very public campaign, by senator Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL).

“Nobody is engineering anything. The election will only be in 2013. This is not the time to begin dealing with this. Nobody is campaigning or moving… In the Chamber we are not even discussing this matter. Nobody is dealing with this issue at this time,” declared Maia.

This is the third time that Maia has been the acting president. He told reporters that he really liked the job. “This is something that any Brazilian would like to have the privilege of doing. I am going to recommend that Dilma and Temer do a lot of traveling.”

[translator’s note: Maia delivered on at least part of his promise: the Lei Geral da Copa was passed by the Chamber of Deputies. It was far from what the government (executive branch) or FIFA wanted, but it was approved and now goes to the Senate. As for the very controversial Codigo Florestal, it is still being negotiated]

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English - content modified

Link - Marco Maia diz que tem trabalhado para amenizar crise entre governo e Congresso