Deputies and their struggles during the voting for Rousseff's impeachment process

The plenary session at the Chamber of Deputies on last Sunday (April 17th), in which the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff was voted favorable, was a huge mess throughout the whole period of nine hours that it took to happen. Exceptionally working during the weekend, the deputies were very pettish and exalted while live on national TV to declare their votes. Many parliamentarians were arguing in front of cameras and the press, and they also used their time at the microphone to criticize their colleagues and enemies while they were supposed to voted "yes" or "no" for the subject in discussion. In addition, while they were giving their speeches, most of representatives dedicated their votes for random people, from their relatives and wives, to militaries previously involved in tortures during the Brazilian dictatorial government, which led the Internet to make fun of them creating memes and all kinds of jokes and mocks. Unfortunately this is the imagery of Brazil abroad - a completely messy country, with corruption everywhere, and a frankly unstable democracy.

One of the most disturbing presences in the session was the Federal Deputy Paulo Maluf (PP/SP, standing for the Progressive Party in São Paulo). Maluf is a widely known figure for Brazilians - since the 1960s he had been involved with politics, having already been mayor in São Paulo city, governor in São Paulo estate, and many other occupations, but have been in decadence since the ends of the 1990s, when he had troubles while occupying the Town Hall of São Paulo and was firstly investigated under the accusations of active corruption during the Mensalão case, when he was one of the right-hand men of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, widely known for his surname Lula. Nowadays, Maluf is still a parliamentarian because nothing has been officially proven against him in previous investigations about his direct involvement with any corruption scandal; in the other hand, he is included in Interpol Red Diffusion since 2010, which means he cannot run abroad Brazil or, otherwise, he might risk being arrested in more than 180 countries. After the troubles caused by his involvement in Mensalão, Maluf was sidelined by Lula and the left-wing government; for this reason, he has been a wide critic of Rousseff's leading, voting favorable for her impeachment.

Another curious parliamentarian present in the voting was Federal Deputy Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, widely known for his surname Tiririca (PR/SP, standing for Republic's Party in São Paulo). Elected in 2010 to occupy a chair in the Chamber of Deputies, Tiririca wrote his name in the estate political history, being the third most voted deputy to be elected in the history of Brazil, earning more than 1,300 million votes at the time. Before being a politician, however, Tiririca was already famous in Brazil for his career as a humorist and circus clown - he had been presenting as a clown since his eight years old, and became a popular figure after signing a contract with Universal Music and recording the song "Florentina", which became a big hit and sold more than 1,5 million of copies. He was also a famous humorist on TV, appearing in most of known TV shows all over Brazil. When he was invited to launch his candidacy as federal deputy, his motto was a joke - or not: "Worst than that, it can't be", talking about the bad reputation of Brazilian political system. Curiously, Tiririca was, since he entered the Parliament, the most frequent parliamentarian, being present in 100% of plenary sessions - he was followed by only nine other deputies, from a total amount of 513. His vote favorable to Rousseff's impeachment was controversial - PT (standing for Worker's Party, the political party of Rousseff) was very upset after Tiririca broke his promise of voting against the process. Since then, he was taunted in an airport by some supporters of the party, claiming he is traitor and doesn't take seriously his job as a politician.

Finally, the most controversial event that happened during the voting session was the squabble between the parliamentarians Jean Wyllys (PSOL/RJ, standing for Socialism and Liberty Party in Rio de Janeiro) and Jair Bolsonaro (PSC/RJ, standing for Social Christian Party in Rio de Janeiro). Firstly, Bolsonaro was called by the President of Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Eduardo Cunha, to declare his vote for the impeachment process. The deputy made a angry speech about his dismissal with all of his colleagues who were favorable for Rousseff's continuity as President, and dedicated his "yes" to the militaries who took the Brazilian government in 1964, and also to Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, ex-chief of DOI-CODI, responsible for all tortures throughout the dictatorial period. Rousseff is widely known for being an ex-guerrilla fighter, who was arrested in 1970 and tortured in prison; so, Bolsonaro's speech was seen as a disrespectful twaddle against the President, and now he's being sued for his words. After this, Wyllys, known for being an ex-participant in TV reality show "Big Brother" and for his work as a deputy for the LGBT community, was called to declare his vote and, once there, made a speech about the foolishness of the impeachment process, hailed Rousseff's government, and declared "no" to her exit. When he was finishing his speech, Bolsonaro, who was standing behind Wyllys, cursed him by offending his sexuality. In response, Wyllys spat on Bolsonaro's face, and also took a spit from Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair's son and also a federal deputy. For yet unknown reasons, the Legislative Police didn't interfere in none of the confusions between the parliamentarians during the voting process, despite constant appeals from Eduardo Cunha.

Certainly some conclusions can be extracted from these events: first, the Chamber of Deputies wasn't ready at all for this messy plenary session, as seen on images from that day, showing a truly messed up room with many men stood up and screaming to each other; second, Brazilian politicians are covered in mud until their necks, which can be inferred from their curricula as parliamentarians and their previous activities before entering the politics; and third, prejudice and religious extremism are both cancers for the proper functioning of Brazil as a serious country, and for human development , seen that none of them help in teaching kids about great social values. As long as it is completely unacceptable that a parliamentarian uses the figure of a torturer as an example of conduct, it is as unacceptable as another parliamentarian spits on a colleague's face during an official and professional event, being massively registered by all kinds of media outlets. As long as having a representative being chased by Interpol is insanely outrageous, having a President heavily involved with corruption scandals and the biggest robbery in a public enterprise (Petrobras, the oil company which originated the investigation under Rousseff's impeachment process) is as outrageous as Maluf still being eligible to hold public offices.