The government (PT) made moves towards rapprochement with Congress after and hopes that the recess will calm the relationship once and for all, while the tension between parliamentarians moves to the Judiciary, with the imminence of controversial trials, such as the one questioning the .
Upon return, the government’s priority will be the public security agenda, with the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) on the topic and the anti-faction project, both in the Chamber. Furthermore, approval in the Senate of the name of minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) is on the list of priorities.
The semester is short, because of the elections, and parliamentarians estimate that the volume of votes will be more restricted.
The government’s relationship with the administration of the president of the Chamber, (Republicanos-PB), experienced turbulent moments throughout the year.
Among the conflicts were the overturning of the IOF (Financial Operations Tax) decree, , (), as rapporteur of the anti-faction bill, the vote on the sentence reduction project for the former president (PL) and the PEC of .
Lula acted last week to de-escalate the relationship. He called Motta to settle the economic agenda and chose the son of an ally of his, deputy Damião Feliciano (-PB), as Minister of Tourism, in place of Celso Sabino — a replacement that also brought him closer to the party, which until then had been broken.
For Motta, the relationship is stabilized and there will be more dialogue in 2026. “Like all relationships in our lives, and this is very natural, because each Power has its independence, each Power has its way of acting, has its internal dynamics. It is not written in the Constitution that one Power has to agree with the other on 100% of the points”, he told journalists on Friday (19).
Furthermore, Motta got back together with the PT leader in the Chamber, deputy Lindbergh Farias (RJ), with whom he had broken up since November. They met on Friday (19) in person to discuss the disagreements and put an end to the fight. “For me, the game is over,” said the president of the Chamber to Sheet.
With the president of , (União Brasil-AP), Lula promised a conversation in the coming days, after the STF — the senator wanted the nominee to be Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), his ally. The PT member also met with some of the main leaders of the House, who demanded more frequent dialogue.
The resumption of conversations occurred after the postponement of the Messias vote to 2026 and also after the Senate’s reaction to the decision that made it difficult for the STF (Supreme Federal Court), a scenario that opened the door for the senators’ crisis with the Palácio do Planalto to fall out of focus.
A problem for 2026 is the disagreements between the government leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), with some of the main members of the House, including Alcolumbre – who spent weeks without answering his calls because he understood that he worked to choose Messias – and Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), who allowed the vote on the sentence reduction project.
On the other hand, tension between Congress and the STF continued to escalate. In December, police operations affected all areas: the government, the center and the opposition.
A carried out search and seizure warrants against Mariângela Fialek, known as Tuca, (PP-AL) and who continued to work in the Motta administration with the management of parliamentary amendments to the Budget.
The operation was authorized by the minister, to investigate suspected irregularities in the allocation of public resources through parliamentary amendments. The investigation hits hard at some of the main members of the center, who command the largest volume of these funds.
The group came to Tuca’s defense, and Motta released a note to state that the server plays a technical role and that there is no irregularity in the distribution of amendments. The movement, however, bothered Congressional leadership – and there are reports of advisors now fearing becoming the target of operations as well.
Another Weverton Rocha (MA), rapporteur for Messias’s appointment to the STF and leader of the PDT in the Senate, one of the most Lula supporters. The same operation also investigates a payment of R$300,000 made on the orders of lobbyist Antonio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as Careca do , to a businesswoman friend of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, the . Everyone denies wrongdoing.
On Friday (19), the targets were two opposition figures. Deputies Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) and Sóstenes Cavalcante (RJ), PL leader in the Chamber, are suspected of diverting public resources from parliamentary quotas. At an address linked to the PL leader, the PF seized around R$430,000 in cash. He attributed the money to the sale of a property, and both accused Dino – who authorized the operation – of persecuting them.
One point that reduced the tension a little was that, in the cases of parliamentarians, only personal or functional addresses were the target of the warrants, but there were no searches and seizures in the offices in Congress. Operations in the Legislative building are a frequent reason for complaints, as they expose congressmen more.
Motta was also forced to revoke, by the Board of Directors, the now former deputies (PL-SP) and (PL-RJ). The plenary rejected Zambelli’s loss of mandate, but the First Panel of the STF determined the immediate withdrawal of her mandate, and she ended up resigning. The president of the Chamber wanted to take Ramagem’s case to the plenary as well, but he backed down and declared the loss due to future absences and was attacked by the opposition.
