The electoral quake between Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, which ended with the former’s tangential victory in the presidential election on October 30, is today having an aftershock with the election of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, the two houses of the Brazilian legislature . In the first, the 513 federal deputies must reappoint Arthur Lira, supported by the government and the opposition, for another two years, but in the second, the 81 senators will choose between the re-election of the favorite Rodrigo Pacheco, supported by Lula , and Rogério Marinho, candidate of Bolsonarism.
It is therefore to the Senate that the spotlight is directed. Pacheco, aged 46, a member of the PSD, a party that describes itself as “right, center and left”, was elected in 2021 – elections for the presidency of the houses are held every two years – both with the support from the PL, from Bolsonaro, as well as from the PT, from Lula, to whom he gave place in the Senate Council – with Romário, from the PL, in the second vice-presidency, and Rogério Carvalho, from the PT, in the third secretary.
This time, however, Pacheco is preparing to be generous with the PT, which he approached after the election and especially after the attacks on the seats of the three powers on January 8, and isolate the PL. For example, Bolsonaro’s party launched Marinho, 56, as Minister of Regional Development from 2020 to 2022.
According to the reports of the press and the majority of parliamentarians, Pacheco’s bloc has 39 of the 41 votes needed for re-election. And Marinho, 23. There are 19 MPs – 10 from União Brasil and five from Podemos, right-wing parties, and four from the centre-right PSDB – undefined.
Only two senators short of the majority, Pacheco’s allies estimated a victory by 50 to 60 votes overall. However, in the Marinho field bills, each candidacy has 35 guaranteed votes and 11 delegates remain undecided. Eduardo Girão (Podemos), a third hopeless participant, supports Marinho in case of a second round.
To counter favoritism of the government candidate, the opposition believes in the history of last-minute betrayal in secret elections. “Secret voting makes you want to cheat…,” said Tancredo Neves, the president elected in 1985 but who died before taking office, whose famous phrase always floats in the skies of Brasilia on days like today.
“Marinho is the best option for us to try to rebalance the three powers,” Jair Bolsonaro said in a video call from the US at a meeting on Monday the 30th of the PL’s elected lawmakers.
The far right, which has a rowdy hideout in the Senate, is made up of Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son, Hamilton Mourão, former vice president, and Damares Alves, former head of the Family, Women and Human Rights portfolio. and three more former Bolsonaro ministers, in this election, in addition to guaranteeing an opposition core in the legislature, aims to influence the judiciary as future Federal Supreme Court (STF) judges must face approval from the upper house of Congress. More: the President of the Senate can put to a vote the impeachment of any of these 11 STF judges, including Alexandre de Moraes, the main target of Bolsonarist anger in his capacity as President of the Superior Electoral Court during the campaign.
On the other hand, Fabiano Contarato, parliamentary leader of the PT in the Senate, praises the “irrefutable behavior of the current Speaker of the House in defense of democratic order” since the January 8 elections and attacks. With no candidate in left field, the PT is playing “for a tie” by supporting moderate Pacheco.
The Senate presidency, in addition to the aforementioned influence over the judiciary, has the powers of attraction, scheduling (or suspending) voting on projects the government holds dear, and the final say in budget approval. In addition, the president is the third figure in the line of succession, after the vice president of the executive, Geraldo Alckmin, and the president of the Chamber of Deputies.
gifted electorate
A less controversial duel is expected in the Chamber of Deputies, in which everyone, including the opposition, plays for that tie. Arthur Lira, of the PP, allied with Bolsonaro, but acknowledged Lula’s victory shortly after the polls closed, helped pass a proposed constitutional amendment that gave room to the new government’s budget and vehemently condemned January 8 .
Lula and the opposition believed they would be taking too great a risk to confront him, not least because Lira is becoming increasingly popular among peers, following housing assistance, fuel reimbursement and the number of flights available for delegates to the general rejection of the editorials of the main Brazilian newspapers.
Against the re-election of Lira, who holds the role of leader of the “centrão”, the bloc of nearly two hundred deputies who vote through positions in the executive alongside all governments, only Chico Alencar, from PSOL, is leading a party comparable to the bloc from the left. “It would be very bad, even for the Lula government itself, if Lira had 400 or 500 votes, since he would become a kind of co-president. Imagine the blackmailing capacity of the “centrão” in this scenario… Alencar justified.
However, Lira even seems doomed to this “co-president” role, at least until February 1, 2025, when his second term ends.
Temer and Sarney
However, the Brazilian parliamentary day begins with the inauguration, under reinforced security measures, taking into account the attacks on the 8th, of the 513 deputies and 27 (one third) senators elected in October, because, since the mandates in the Senate have been eight year, the remaining 54 (two thirds) were already in the house. The vote is scheduled for the early evening in Lisbon. In addition to the presidencies, the leadership of about 40 permanent thematic committees is still at stake, disputed shoulder to shoulder by the parties.
The Chamber of Deputies has already been chaired by figures such as Ulysses Guimarães, considered one of the founders of democracy in Brazil, Aécio Neves, who defeated the candidate in the 2014 elections, and three times by Michel Temer, president of 2016 until 2018 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. The most powerful of all presidents, however, was Eduardo Cunha, who led this impeachment in 2016, but was arrested years later for corruption. For example, the Senate was chaired three times by José Sarney, the first post-redemocratization president.
Source: DN
