Deputies who are part of the Chamber’s leadership believe that the president () needs to intensify his contact with congressmen and act more in the political articulation of his government. Furthermore, they say that if the PT member wants to strengthen his support base in Congress, a possible ministerial reform should include changes in the Palácio do Planalto — currently occupied only by PT members.
There is one, which ends up harming dialogue with the Legislature: Alexandre Padilha at the Institutional Relations Secretariat, at Secom (Social Communication Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic), and at the Civil House.
Central parliamentarians also complain about the concentration of ministries in the final area with members of the PT, while the party has a bench that represents around 15% of the 513 seats in the Chamber.
They also say that in these ministerial exchanges it is necessary to consider that the context today is different from the beginning of the Lula government and, above all, the vote at that time. There, the PT member distributed nine ministries to obtain the support of three center and right-wing parties that do not belong to the centrão, the PSD, the MDB and União Brasil. In 2023, it attracted two acronyms from the center, the PP and the Republicans, with two more ministries.
In the opinion of a cardinal in the center, this configuration of the Esplanada has not been “balanced” since the transition. Now, this is even more evident, according to him, with the deliveries of each party in the National Congress votes and their representation on the Esplanada.
And that, one day or another, the government will have to address this. Despite this, he states that it is up to President Lula himself to make the decisions.
There is great dissatisfaction, for example, in the PSDB bench in the House, which has already brought to the government that it does not feel represented by the Ministry of Fisheries, occupied by André de Paula, given the low political capillarity of the department. The party has voted in agreement with the Executive on a series of matters.
This week, the bench’s dissatisfaction with the government was vocalized in the leader’s words. Brito spoke of “giving a vote of confidence to the federal government, minister Rui Costa and government leader José Guimarães”.
União Brasil, in turn, delivered few votes on these proposals and today they have three representatives on the Esplanada: Celso Sabino (Tourism), Juscelino Filho (Communications) and Waldez Góes (Regional Development), who was nominated by senator Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil -AP).
O and O, in turn, have contributed to the votes and have only one nominee each in Lula’s ministry.
With the departure of (PP-AL) from the presidency of the Chamber, deputies allied with the parliamentarian defend that he occupy a portfolio, as this could help the government’s political articulation in the House.
Lira himself, however, does not create expectations and that .
Another factor is also remembered by parliamentarians: a possible federation between PP, Republicans and União Brasil could bring changes to the national scenario. A politician who is following the negotiations says that this issue, which has been in negotiations for months, should have an outcome by February.
If completed, it could form a bench of around 150 deputies. In this sense, this force should also have representation on the Esplanade.
The Chamber leadership also assesses that President Lula himself needs to intensify day-to-day contact with parliamentarians. Deputies say that meetings between PT members and House leaders were rare and that this contrasts with Lula’s stance in his first and second terms — when the president organized get-togethers with parliamentarians and had a closer dialogue with them.
A center leader says that Lula is known for being a dialogue politician, but that this is not reflected in his performance this year. He states that this closer relationship “is needed” and that “it is not good to just focus on the pragmatic relationship” between the president and congressmen.
“We have just left a bench meeting and we are going to give a vote of confidence to the federal government, the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, the leader Guimarães and the federal government”, stated Brito. “We will be coordinating the bench to resolve doubts and so that we can cooperate with the development of Brazil.”
