The following article, written by Patrícia Villela Marino, was originally published on the Poder360 website on October 17.
In recent years, we have witnessed the consolidation of a political strategy that needs to be exposed. The Centrão and the far-right have branded the current government with the stigma of corruption not out of commitment to ethics, but as a self-protection strategy — a kind of mantle of sanctity woven for themselves. This is the old childish tactic according to which the best defense is offense: accuse others precisely of what you practice.
The “secret budget”, after all, was not born in this government — it was gestated and intensified throughout previous administrations, becoming a privileged bargaining chip in recent terms in the Chamber of Deputies, operating in the shadows while its architects posed as guardians of public morality.
In December 2022, the Supreme Federal Court declared the rapporteur’s amendments (RP-9) unconstitutional, which operated without transparency, favoring allies of the previous government in exchange for parliamentary support. Nevertheless, the scheme did not disappear: it simply metamorphosed. The so-called “committee amendments” emerged as a new guise, maintaining the logic of dispersion of funds with low public control and serving as a basis for selective accusations — including against ministers of the current government.
Simultaneously, projects such as the Amnesty Constitutional Amendment (which forgives party debts) and the Shield Constitutional Amendment (aimed at self-protection of parliamentarians) reveal the systematic effort of sectors of Congress to protect their own interests, often at the expense of transparency and institutional integrity. The inconsistency worsens in the face of the attempt to grant amnesty to those involved in the 2023 coup attempt — precisely by those who proclaim themselves the true “guardians of public morality.”
This movement is part of an already known populist strategy: instrumentalizing anti-corruption discourse to weaken adversaries and cover up the absence of structural proposals. The legitimate fight against corruption is hijacked by selective moralism, which turns a blind eye to the dealings of the recent past, as long as they serve the maintenance of power.
As a defender of active citizenship and transparency, I affirm: fighting corruption requires more than slogans or virtual lynchings. It requires concrete measures to guarantee maximum transparency in the public budget, with traceability of resources and clear criteria for their allocation. It also requires strengthening mechanisms of social control over the three branches of government — Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary.
Democracy does not survive moralistic populism or budgetary opacity. We need to replace the smokescreen of anti-corruption rhetoric with solid institutional structures that allow society to monitor and participate in public management. Only then will we build a Brazil where ethics is not an occasional banner, but a permanent commitment.
Patrícia Villela Marino, president of Humanitas360 Institute
