Four names vie for command of the evangelical bench in Congress

Legislative activities in the National Congress resume this Wednesday (1st), and the parliamentarians who make up the Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE) are already articulating to choose the new president of the bench, which in the last legislature was commanded by deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante ( PL-RJ). The election is scheduled for the morning of Thursday (2), the day after the election of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies.

The election of a new leader of the evangelical group takes place every two years since its foundation in Congress in 2003, but this is the first time that the parliamentary group has four candidates in dispute for its command, since at other times there has always been consensus around a single name. Differences over the relationship with the Lula government (PT) and the support for the re-election of Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to the Presidency of the Chamber made massive support for any of the candidates unfeasible.

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Sóstenes will not seek re-election, since he must run for the PL seat on the Board of Directors and this prevents him from chairing parliamentary fronts and commissions. THE People’s Gazettethe deputy from Rio de Janeiro said that the parliamentarians who have launched themselves as candidates to preside over the evangelical bench so far are Senator Carlos Viana (PL-MG) and federal deputies Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM), Otoni de Paula (MDB-RJ ) and Eli Borges (PL-TO).

All candidates were Bolsonaro supporters

The four names in the dispute positioned themselves as allies of former President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro (PL) over the last four years. Of them, three are pastors linked to the Assembly of God: Silas Câmara, Otoni de Paula and Eli Borges. Carlos Viana, the only candidate who is not a pastor, attends the Baptist Church.

A survey carried out by The globe with members of the evangelical bench points deputies Silas and Otoni as favorites to assume command. The former has even chaired the Evangelical Parliamentary Front in 2019 and 2020 and has the support of Republicans, which has 19 evangelical parliamentarians.

According to the report of the The globeSilas has good transit between different churches and has already mediated an agreement between Sóstenes and deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), which would have avoided a split in the bench last year.

On the other hand, Otoni, who in recent years WAS Bolsonaro’s ally, now seeks to present himself as the name with the best dialogue with the new government. He attended the inaugurations of three MDB ministers appointed by Lula – Jader Filho (Cities), Renan Filho (Transport) and Simone Tebet (Planning) – and even criticized the former president’s stance for having remained silent about the protests after the election.

Another candidate for the position, deputy Eli Borges, was the spokesman for the evangelical bench last year. In an interview with People’s Gazette last year, he said that his biggest challenge was to prevent the advancement of guidelines such as neutral language, gender ideology, health passport and legalization of marijuana.

The last candidate for the presidency of the bench, Senator Carlos Viana, should preside at least the Evangelical Front in the Senate, which was created at the end of last year and should have about 14 senators who declare themselves Evangelicals, among them Magno Malta (PL- ES) and Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF).

With more members, the bench could be Lula’s “thorn in the side”

Some left-wing parliamentarians are betting that, despite his ideological distance, Lula will manage to gain the support of part of the evangelical group. This possibility, however, is not well seen by PL parliamentarians, especially by the current president.

Sóstenes Cavalcante states that, in his assessment, the priority of the parliamentary front this year should be “resistance to attacks by the left-wing government.” “They have already started with a neutral pronoun, withholding normative instructions on abortion from the Ministry of Health, etc. It will be a year of ideological war against the government, which in this first month has already shown what it came to”, declared the deputy.

In the legislature that begins, the new formation of the bench is more numerous than the previous one, a scenario that is pointed out by the deputy as more favorable to the blocking of agendas related to gender ideology and the legalization of abortion and drugs.

The estimate of the presidency of the bench until the end of December was that at least 132 deputies and 14 senators should be part of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front from 2023, which represents an increase of 19% in comparison with the last legislature and a historic record. of bench members. The final list has not yet been finalized and should be released in the coming days.