With Silas Câmara, evangelical bench decides whether to rival or seal peace with Lula’s government

After the evangelical bench decided how the definition of leaders will be, with Silas Câmara (Republicans) at the head of the bench in the second half, the new concern of the religious front is how it will articulate in relation to the new government.

The question, from now on, is to know how the religious bloc will position itself in the face of the turn of the left, after four years in a honeymoon climate with Bolsonarism. Are you going to go to war, sticking with stubborn opposition, or wave the white flag, temporizing when possible to build a relationship of relative peace with the current government?

The group decided that the two opponents who rivaled in the evangelical election will take turns in the leadership: in the first half, Eli Borges (PL-TO) takes over, in the second, Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM). The same arrangement holds for 2024.

There was an understanding behind the scenes that, after Jair Bolsonaro saw his re-election dream go down the drain, his party suffered a series of losses in the Legislature. The PL even elected a good bench, but the command of the Chamber and the Senate was with people elected with the support of the PT: Arthur Lira (PP-AL) and Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).

There is more: the most important committee of the House of Representatives, the CCJ (Commission on Constitution and Justice), should be chaired by PT Rui Falcão.

The idea of ​​giving Eli Borges, who in April sealed his pact with Bolsonaro by exchanging Solidariedade for the PL, the first six months at the head of the bench would be a kind of consolation prize.

Requested by peers, Silas Câmara’s candidacy came as a way of signaling that the bench is indeed interested in maintaining a cordial relationship with the new Planalto Palace. He would have more flexibility to deal with Lula’s emissaries, assess colleagues. There is a lot at stake, such as the regulation of the PEC that exempts from IPTU properties rented by religious temples.

Evangelical parliamentarians were jubilant when it was approved in 2022, but Bolsonaro never regulated it. Lula is now expected to do so.

Minister Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) has already spoken with members of the front on the subject. He has been the government’s main interlocutor with them.

Many of the congressmen from this Christian branch come from parties that either already form part of the government base or may join it in the future. Case of the Republicans of Silas Câmara and Marcelo Crivella, former minister of Dilma Rousseff who later turned against the PT. His church, Universal do Reino de Deus, was one of the last to abandon its alliance with the party before Dilma’s impeachment in 2016.

There are, on the other hand, doubts about what the dynamics will be like for this crowd inclined towards the center, which does not feel comfortable throwing fuel on the fire, with a more ideological wing of believers.

Debutant Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), record holder of votes for the Chamber, is one of the most active watchdogs of Bolsonarism.

Carla Zambelli (PL-SP) said she intends to participate on the bench. She has oscillated in recent years between Catholicism and Evangelicalism. She had become an evangelical, but in August she told the Sheet that was still in doubt. “I suffered a blow this week, I saw the image of Our Lady who cries.”

A trio of newcomers under investigation for allegedly encouraging the anti-democratic acts that destroyed Brasília on January 8 also declared themselves evangelicals: Clarissa Tércio (PP-PE), Sílvia Waiãpi (PL-AP) and André Fernandes (PL-CE).

Executive director of the Institute of Religious Studies, Ana Carolina Evangelista recalls the physiologism that historically surrounds the bench, but points out the side effects of Bolsonaro’s arrival in power.

“Since 2018, the bloc has extrapolated its agenda focused on the traditional guidelines of conservative religious activism and is embarking on the far right agendas more broadly: restrictions on the role of the State, more punitive public security and moral conservatism in education”, he said.

Seeing the willingness of the front that starts in 2023 to buy these fights.

One point is undisputed on the bench: not everyone agrees on the degree of affability to be reserved for a left-wing administration, but the so-called customs agenda should not be made more flexible in the name of good relations with the government.

The goal is to form a barrier against the advancement of progressive agendas, especially those related to abortion and LGBTQIA+ people. There is, however, the perception that Lula will hold back the leftist wave at least in the first year of his third term, while maneuvering to solidify a support base in Congress.

Political scientist Vinicius do Valle, director of the Evangelical Observatory, recalls that Lula and evangelicals were on better terms in the past. The cracks, however, were there, as in the conservative cry against projects to combat homophobia.

The turning point, for the political scientist, was Marco Feliciano’s (PL-SP) noisy move to the presidency of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber, in 2013. Under bombardment by human rights activists, he took office after a party agreement accepted by the PT.

Deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS), then Minister of Human Rights, even accused Feliciano of inciting hatred. But today is a new time of a new day that has begun, and Rosário has appeared in events of the evangelical block to rehearse a rapprochement.

For Valle, the new caucus will not act uniformly, “and we cannot expect it to be different”. Two strands must collide: “One wants to approach the government punctually, and the other, make the emphatic exercise of opposition”.

Meanwhile, the new president of the front makes plans. He wants to mobilize his people to occupy positions in commissions that he deems strategic, such as those on Human Rights and Education. That way he would avoid the past mistake of having a large bench, but without the strength to stop the left agendas.

Set a more ambitious goal. “The church has open doors, who knows [Lula] does not accept Jesus as savior. It would be really good.” The president is Catholic.

* With information from Folha de São Paulo

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