Evangelical bench rehearses rapprochement with the Lula government

A wing of the evangelical bench is already working with the expectation of getting closer to the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) as of the return of the parliamentary recess. The movement takes place amid the change of command of the parliamentary front, which from August will be chaired by deputy Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM).

Câmara will assume the position currently held by deputy Eli Borges (PL-TO), linked to former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). With the change of front command, parliamentarians who defend a rapprochement with Lula admit that the opening of dialogue with the Planalto Palace will be facilitated.

Among the members of the Lula government, the assessment is that Silas Câmara is a “pragmatic” parliamentarian with a “conciliatory” profile. On the other hand, PT supporters believe that Eli Borges closed the bench for dialogue with the Executive due to his proximity to Bolsonaro.

Recently, for example, the PL deputy said that Lula “did not understand the importance of evangelicals” in Brazil. The declaration took place when the Chief Executive decided not to go to the March for Jesus, in São Paulo (SP).

For the second half, the expectation of members of the Evangelical front is that there will be a reduction in opposition to government agendas in Congress, with the exception of the usual ones.

Currently, the group has 132 deputies and 14 senators, enough strength to influence any vote. Silas Câmara has already publicly defended that he should support ”good for Brazil” articles by the Lula government.

Republicans can win the Ministry of Sports and pave the way

With the change of command of the parliamentary front, Lula’s allies already defend that the government makes a rapprochement with the evangelical bench. The expectation is that government ministers expand their agendas to listen to those parliamentarians who are willing to dialogue with the Planalto.

The eventual accession of Republicans to the government with the possible choice of deputy Silvio Costa Filho (PE) to command the Ministry of Sports is a step towards rapprochement with the Universal Church, which exerts influence over the party. The leader of the party in the Chamber, deputy Marcos Pereira (SP), has denied that the acronym will take over the ministry in the PT administration.

The Sports portfolio is seen as strategic for Republicans due to its capillarity to serve social projects across the country. This Thursday (13), the leader of the government in the National Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (AP), said that parties such as the Republicans and the PP, of the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), are welcome to the base from the government.

The current Minister of Sports, Ana Moser, met with Lula last week and survived in office at least until the end of this month of July. She was scheduled to represent the Brazilian government during the Women’s Football World Cup, starting on July 20 in Australia. Behind the scenes, PT members admit that Moser could be reassigned to the presidency of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) if an agreement is reached with the Republicans.

Lula used tax reform to nod to the Evangelical bench

As a rapprochement strategy, the Planalto Palace used the Tax reform process in the Chamber to make a nod to parliamentarians from the Evangelical group. According to deputies from the front, support for the text was built in negotiations in which the Executive was open and susceptible to meeting the demands presented.

So far, most of the requests from parliamentarians on the Evangelical bench revolve around tax benefits for religious temples. In this strategy, an agglutinative amendment changed parts of the Proposal for an Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the reform and expanded tax benefits for “religious entities”.

The somewhat generic expression generated controversy because it made it possible for any organization linked to churches – without specifying the branch, whether radio, hospital or another different one – to also not pay taxes. Despite this, the government leadership endorsed the text presented by parliamentarians from the Evangelical group.

According to Deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), the government opened itself up to dialogue with the bench. “He totally opened the doors and took an important step in this relationship with evangelicals”, said the deputy.