Brazil decree could pit Jair Bolsonaro against his own party
Confusion has reigned during right-wing Bolsonaro’s five months in office, with his anti-corruption reform now in jeopardy
Brasilia — Brazil’s Senate was due to vote on Tuesday on a presidential decree that has put President Jair Bolsonaro at odds with his own party and added to the confusion that has been the hallmark of the leader’s five months in office. The right-wing firebrand was voted into office on an anti-corruption platform. It included revamping his cabinet to put the financial operations control office, known as COAF, under justice minister Sergio Moro, a former judge who jailed many politicians for kickbacks in the Car Wash scandal. Law makers in the lower chamber of Congress, last week, approved the temporary decree that reduced the number of ministries to 22 from 29, but they kept the COAF out of Moro’s hands by restoring it to the economy ministry. Bolsonaro’s PSL party in the Senate intends to restore the original clause putting the COAF on Moro’s watch. But if it succeeds in doing so it means the decree must go back to the lower house for another vote, where it could be rejected and pu...
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