This is one more defeat for supporters of Jair Bolsonaro. Rodrigo Pacheco, supported by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was re-elected on Wednesday February 1 as head of the Senate, facing a former minister of the far-right ex-president, during a return to parliament under high security.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, was also reappointed for a two-year term. This former ally of Mr. Bolsonaro does not dispute Lula's victory in the presidential election.
Rodrigo Pacheco, elected from the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center), obtained 49 votes, against 32 for his opponent Rogerio Marinho, who was Minister of Regional Development under the mandate of Mr. Bolsonaro (2019-2022). He needed 41 votes to be reappointed for another two-year term.
"We must join hands, so that Brazil is pacified and the differences remain in the field of politics," Pacheco said before the vote of the senators.
Without any real opposition, Arthur Lira, of the centre-right Progressistas (PP) party, was re-elected hands down, with the votes of 464 of the 513 deputies, a record.
Reinforced security on the Place des Trois-Pouvoirs
Brazil is emerging from a very polarized election, won by a short margin by Lula against Jair Bolsonaro at the end of October 2022. But this young democracy remains above all traumatized by the riots of January 8, when thousands of Bolsonarians refusing to accept the return of the left to power invaded and ransacked the places of power in Brasilia.
The security system has since been reinforced in the capital: access to the Esplanade des Ministries, which leads to the Place des Trois-Pouvoirs, where the Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court are located, has been closed at public, and the area was continuously monitored by drones.
The new Congress, resulting from the October 2022 legislative elections, leans more to the right than the previous one, and the left-wing president will have to constantly negotiate with the myriad of parties that make up the country's political landscape.
The 513 deputies are elected for four years, a term that coincides with that of the head of state. The senators are elected for eight years, a third of them begin their term on Wednesday.
Lula attentive to Congress
The role of the presidents of the two chambers is very important, insofar as they are the ones who determine the agenda. That of the Chamber of Deputies is the third person in the country, after the president and the vice-president.
Arthur Lira, 53, is a figure of the "Centrao", a nebula of centrist parties that have been making rain and shine in Parliament for decades, most often allying themselves with the government in place, by trading their support for important positions.
Mr. Lira was a close ally of Jair Bolsonaro, refusing to submit dozens of requests for the impeachment of the far-right ex-president to the vote of the House. But he was one of the first authorities to recognize Lula's election, at the end of October 2022, and he claimed in a recent interview with Globonews to have a "serene" relationship with the leftist president.
"We have no power over Congress, we depend on Congress," the 77-year-old head of state said in early January, assuring that he wanted to maintain good relations with parliamentarians, as during his first two terms (2003-2010).
