Banco Master has become the scandal Brazilian lawmakers can use against one another while still avoiding the committee that would make the evidence public. Valor reports that a Federal Police operation targeting Senator Ciro Nogueira revived pressure on Senate President Davi Alcolumbre to install a congressional inquiry, but that lawmakers still consider the panel unlikely. [1]

The politics are too useful to resolve. Government allies point to Nogueira's ties to Bolsonaro's camp. Flavio Bolsonaro now promotes a Banco Master inquiry while accusing a Workers' Party faction in Bahia of links to the alleged fraud. Congresswoman Fernanda Melchionna says she had already collected enough signatures for a joint inquiry and that Alcolumbre neither read the request nor suspended the session. [1]

The campaign calendar does the rest. Valor's sources say many deputies and senators are turning toward reelection, while Lower House Speaker Hugo Motta remains reluctant because police are already investigating and other inquiry requests are waiting. [1]

That makes the scandal a test of congressional convenience. The facts have enough political heat to produce speeches, slogans and accusations across party lines. They may not have enough institutional force to make the Senate president or the Lower House speaker spend election-year time on a CPI that could damage several camps at once.

MSM sees a procedural fight. X sees a partisan scandal. The sharper fact is that both camps can benefit from demanding an inquiry that Congress may never convene.

-- LUCIA VEGA, Sao Paulo