Protests seal veto of the Shielding Constitutional Amendment in the Senate and weaken amnesty for Bolsonaro

A day after the demonstrations that brought thousands of people to the streets against the Shielding Amendment (PEC) and the amnesty bill for the January 8 coup plotters, the political landscape in Brasília changed. The government and Workers' Party (PT) leaders celebrated the mobilization as proof that the population rejects parliamentary abuses. In the Senate, the proposal approved by the Chamber of Deputies is already considered a foregone conclusion.

On Sunday the 21st, President Lula (Workers' Party) published aerial images of the protests and stated that they "demonstrate that the population does not want impunity, nor amnesty." Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann reinforced this interpretation by saying that Lula arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly "accompanied by the Brazilian people, who took to the streets to speak out against amnesty for the coup plotters."

The repercussions in the legislature were immediate. The Senate's rapporteur for the proposed amendment, Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE), said the text would be rejected as "absurd, a slap in the face to society." The chairman of the CCJ, Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), marked the proposal as the first item on Wednesday's agenda, stating that he intends to "bury" the measure. Representatives from centrist and even left-wing parties who voted in favor of the proposed amendment even posted videos on social media apologizing.

On the Bolsonaro side, efforts were made to downplay the actions. Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) shared a message from Pastor Silas Malafaia saying that the left "deceives the people." Meanwhile, Fabio Wajngarten , former communications secretary for Jair Bolsonaro (PL), criticized the combination of the bulletproof vesting and amnesty agendas, calling it "reverse marketing."

While the Armored Persons Amendment (PEC) has already been sealed in the Senate, the amnesty bill has also lost momentum. Rapporteur Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP) says he won't submit a proposal that directly benefits Bolsonaro. "The only ones who can help Bolsonaro are his lawyers, not me," he stated.

Sunday's protests, which brought together around 42,200 people in São Paulo and another 41,800 in Rio de Janeiro, were the largest pro-government demonstrations since 2022. For the first time, the left demonstrated a mobilization capacity comparable to that of recent demonstrations called by the right.

Beyond the immediate impact on the Senate, the streets tightened their grip on the Chamber of Deputies, especially Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), the main guarantor of the swift passage of both bills. Motta was the target of direct criticism on social media—and in his constituency in Paraíba, protesters even chanted "Motta out."

The political fallout also reignites a broader debate about Congress and society. For the government, the mobilization opened the way for issues such as expanding the income tax exemption bracket and ending the 6-for-1 workday to gain priority. For Bolsonarists, the result was corrosive: by linking the amnesty to the Shielding Amendment Proposal, they ended up associating an already unpopular issue with one even more rejected by public opinion.