Luciana Vasconcelos
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The leaders of the opposition parties (PSDB, PFL, PV, PDT, and PPS) plan a noon meeting to discuss charges that the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Severino Cavalcanti (PP-PE), received payoffs from the firm that runs the restaurant in the Chamber, Buani & Paulucci Ltda. The president of the PFL, Jorge Bornhausen (SC), said that the leaders intend to call for Cavalcanti's removal from the presidency. "The accusation is serious."

According to Bornhausen, Cavalcanti's defense is equivocal, when he claims he might have signed a paper without reading it. "I see the situation as becoming increasingly complicated, since the president of the Chamber is losing prestige."

In response to charges made in the press over the weekend, Cavalcanti released a note, yesterday (4), in which he affirms that he has already ordered the director-general of the House, Sérgio Sampaio, to create an investigatory commission to clarify the facts. It will be up to the director-general to name the members of the commission.

Translation: David Silberstein