After criticism from the PL leader, Alcolumbre says he regrets the election of those who promote themselves by 'offending and attacking'

The president of the Federal Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), said this Wednesday (4) that he regrets that politicians promoted themselves during the elections by offending other people. Alcolumbre cited the result of the PL's first round and made his speech after receiving criticism from the leader of the Liberal Party (PL), Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ).

"Sometimes, some of our colleagues go from just debating to attacking in relation to this presidency," he said. "Unfortunately, many political actors in my country called Brazil promoted themselves and won the election by offending and attacking people."

According to him, the attacks seek to garner support from the "horrible radicalism" that exists in Brazil. Alcolumbre also said that aggression, threats and lies are prevailing.

"And to my sadness and that of millions of people, they won the elections, based on some specific agenda, whether it was against the Judiciary, whether it was against the Executive, whether it was against the president of the Federal Senate, because they cast votes in the election," said Alcolumbre.

He then criticized statements that cast doubt on the results of the elections, as Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) did after the results of the second round:

"They opened the polls and they won the election, but the worst part of all this is that in the first round the electronic ballot box worked [...] it was used to elect 120 federal deputies from the party of the candidate who lost the election, it was used to elect 20 or so senators, it was used to celebrate a successful election of President Lula's opponent [...] and when it opened in the second round, the ballot box was no longer useful", said the president of the Senate.

Alcolumbre spoke after the PL leader demanded a vote this Wednesday (4) on a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) to reduce the age of criminal responsibility. Earlier, Alcolumbre said he would not vote on the text because the Chamber began the discussion before the Senate.

Portinho criticized the decision and said that Alcolumbre was failing to comply with an agreement made between the leaders the previous day to speed up the vote on the issue. The PL defends the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years in cases of heinous crimes and to 16 for all other crimes.

"The Senate today is subject to the Judiciary and the Chamber of Deputies. And the president of Congress, Mr. Davi, you are the president of Congress, senator. Aren't you the president of Congress, Mr. Davi? You are the president of Congress, senator! It is not the Chamber of Deputies that says how it will be, the Senate is the Upper House. You made a commitment; a commitment must be fulfilled", said Portinho.

For some of the senators, the speech was an attack on Alcolumbre's performance. Government parliamentarians defended him in speeches in the plenary.

Afterwards, Portinho responded to Alcolumbre and his colleagues' statements: "I didn't offend anyone. Much less would I offend your Excellency [Alcolumbre], much less did I deal with an electronic voting machine here", said the PL leader.

Portinho also defended Flávio's escape to the United States. He further said that none of them responded about the commitment not being fulfilled.