Evangelical bench, cornered by Lula’s return, elects leader – 02/02/2023 – Power

For the last four years, with Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at the head of the Federal Executive, the evangelical bench felt like playing in the attack. But Bolsonaro was not re-elected, and the return of Lula (PT) to the Presidency is a stepping stone towards the conservative plans of the most articulate religious bloc in Congress, according to its members.

It is with the feeling that they will once again enter the field in the defense, a position in which they more need to prevent the other side from advancing than to impose their agenda, that evangelical parliamentarians will meet this Thursday morning (2) to choose their new leader.

There are three names that supported Bolsonaro in the presidential race. Two are deputies: Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM), who has chaired the group, and Eli Borges (PL-TO). Senator Carlos Viana (Podemos-MG) runs outside.

Former purple Bolsonarista, who in recent weeks began to criticize the former ally and talk about “turning the page”, Otoni de Paula (MDB-RJ) even sent his application, but must give up the candidacy in favor of Borges.

Until the day before, the election was heading towards an unprecedented dispute in the vote. This is because past elections had as a practice the acclamation of a president without the need for a vote. This has happened since the creation of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front in 2003.

Consensus sometimes came at the last minute, it’s true. The heads of the block win biennial terms, but in 2021, for example, two candidates avoided confrontation by closing an agreement shortly before the political arm wrestling was consolidated. It turned out like this: Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP) led the bench in 2021, and Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), in the 2022 election.

Allied with Pastor Silas Malafaia, Sóstenes must pass the baton to Câmara or Borges. The most likely thing is that Viana will lead the evangelicals of the Senate, a team that includes the “terribly Christian” Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), Bolsonaro’s former minister, and Magno Malta (PL-ES), who returns to the House after losing his seat in 2018 to Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), the country’s first openly gay senator.

Until Wednesday night (1th), there was no expectation of an agreement between the opponents —which can always happen in the 45th minute of the second half, of course.

Câmara, by the way, is well aware of this: when he was elected for the first time, in 2019, the pacification around his name was only sealed on the same day, after five rivals abandoned the race in his favor, including Flordelis (then PSD-RJ ). Three months later, her husband would be murdered, a crime for which she ended up convicted last year.

The seams for this year’s election coincided with the campaign for the presidencies of the House and Senate. On Tuesday (31), Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who the next day would be reappointed to the leadership of the deputies, welcomed the evangelical bench with a breakfast that had on the menu the split between evangelicals and the position that the bloc intends to adopt in this legislature.

The members’ attachment to the so-called customs agenda will be a thorn in Lula’s side, says the current president. Sóstenes sees “ideological confrontation with the agenda of the leftist government” as a priority for the group from now on. The themes are familiar from the clash between progressives and conservatives, from abortion to the LGBTQIA+ cause.

Three newly arrived deputies to the Chamber make their debut on the bench, all of whom are the subject of an investigation by the STF (Federal Supreme Court) that determines whether they encouraged acts of vandalism in Brasília on January 8th.

Clarissa Tércio (PP-PE) is being investigated for having posted on a social network: “We’ve just taken power. We’re inside Congress. All the people are up here. This will go down in history, the history of my grandchildren, of my great-grandchildren”. Sílvia Waiãpi (PL-AP), for sharing a video with the caption: “Seizure of power by the Brazilian people dissatisfied with the red government”.

The trio André Fernandes (PL-CE) closes, who made a virtual call for the “act against the Lula government”, saying that he would be there. He later published a photo of a cabinet belonging to minister Alexandre de Moraes, which had been vandalized. “He who laughs will go to prison,” he wrote.

Sóstenes says that he spoke with the deputies and that none of them was in the country’s capital that day.

The new government started provoking, says the outgoing president. Gestures such as the use of the neutral pronoun (“todes”) at official events and the cleaning of the Planalto Palace with rock salt irritated. The element is linked to religions of African origin, demonized by Christian churches.

According to his calculations, the bench will have 132 deputies (26% of the Chamber) and 14 senators (17% of the House). Dean of the group, Gilberto Nascimento (PSC-SP) joined the first parliamentary front, in Lula’s first year as president. The current moment is more challenging, says the deputy.

The biggest obstacle, for him, will not even be the president himself, but “the people from the ministries”, with a different profile and more identity than that of the first Lulista Esplanada. “We are going to have to work on a great defense, try to survive in terms of these guidelines [progressistas].”

Not everyone on the bench wants to make an intransigent opposition to Lula, not least because there are partisan issues in the middle — many congressmen are in subtitles of the lulist orbit, like the PSD, or in acronyms that may join the governing base in the future, like the Republicans.

Meanwhile, the climate of dispute in the evangelical block contaminates social networks. One of the comments said, without naming enemies: “Beware of fallen angels.”