Lira reacts, attracts parties and forms a larger block in the Chamber – 04/12/2023 – Politics

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), managed to attract parties from the center, the right and the base of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government to form a block with 173 deputies —becoming the greatest force of the House.

The group will be formed by PP, Lira party, União Brasil, PSDB-Cidadania, Solidariedade, Patriota and Avante, in addition to the left-wing parties PDT and PSB.

The creation of the block was sealed in a meeting this Wednesday morning (12), according to leaders who told Sheet. The initiative is a reaction by the President of the House to the creation of a bloc that split the center and united Republicans, MDB, PSD, Podemos and PSC (with 142 parliamentarians) and that emptied Lira’s internal power.

The new block will have 173 deputies, the result of the sum of each party bench as disclosed on the Chamber’s website. The creation should be announced in an interview with party leaders this Wednesday.

The background of this movement involves the dispute for power within Congress, the strength that each group will have in relation to the federal government and the succession of the president of the Chamber —which will take place in February 2025.

At the beginning of the year, leaders of União Brasil and PP tried to create a federation of the two parties, but the articulations failed.

The PT, of President Lula, and the PL, of former President Jair Bolsonaro, will not participate in the blocks. The Lula government is currently working in line with Lira and is trying to build a solid support base, which is why it has sought not to interfere in the internal dispute in the Chamber with the fear of attracting opponents on one side.

According to leaders heard by the Sheet, it is strategic for the government to have grassroots parties, such as the PSB and PDT, close to parties that consider themselves independent. One leader claims that the Planalto will need these parties to have governability and that this approximation needs to be made.

Members of the government claim that they are carefully following these movements, but they say that they do not see in them, at least at the moment, the possibility of changing the framework of the base that the Executive is trying to sew in the House.

In addition to the political symbolism of bringing together the largest contingent of seats, the union of parties in blocks gives the largest groups a power of command in the composition of the joint commissions (between the Chamber and the Senate) that must be retaken for the analysis of the provisional measures, in the Commission Budget and in the day-to-day voting in plenary.

Lira’s succession is also at stake, although a lot could change by February 2025, when the next election for the command of the House is scheduled (Lira cannot run for re-election).

See the size of Lula’s base in the infographics below: