The end of the party window changed the profile in the Chamber of two of the country’s main parties. , which is a pre-candidate for the Presidency, saw its group of deputies become more northeastern and closer to the president. União Brasil changed almost half of its seats, with a stampede of Bolsonarists and former ministers from the PT administration.
The PSD left the window with a positive balance of two deputies, under intense movement within its ranks: 14 deputies abandoned the party and 16 arrived, which leaves the party with 49 seats in the Chamber. In the new configuration of the party, 20 parliamentarians, approximately 40% of the bench, are representatives of the Northeast.
In this way, the region — in which names from the center tend to follow President Lula because of the PT member’s popularity — now has the greatest representation on the PSD bench. Of the 16 newly affiliated to the PSD, six are elected by states in this region. Among them, for example, is the deputy (PE), who has a strong identification with the left and with Lula.
The Southeast, for example, fell from 15 to 13 deputies, which represents 26% of the bench. The South, in turn, went from 9 to 8. According to PSD leaders heard with reservation by the Sheetthe change in the profile of the bench will naturally make it closer to the Lula government. Currently, the acronym occupies three ministries in the PT administration: Fisheries, Agriculture and Mines and Energy.
Such a change in the countertop profile should also increase the internal resistance to . Most of the PSD’s northeastern leaders will openly campaign for Lula in the first round, despite the party having its own candidate. In other words, the former governor of Goiás cannot even count on his supporters on his platform or asking for votes in the Northeast states.
Internally, the change in profile should also make it easier for the PSD to adhere to government agendas. The party had a Bolsonarist wing and was more identified on the right, but the majority of this group fled to , in search of having the number “22” on the ballot box. Other deputies from Paraná left the party following Governor Ratinho Junior’s withdrawal from running for President.
At least 121 of the 513 deputies switched parties in the current party window. The number could be even higher, as there are changes that have not yet been reported to the Chamber’s management.
The came out numerically smaller from the party window. The party was the one that had the most movement in this window, losing 29 deputies and joining 21. In other words, it lost 59 representatives in March and reached April occupying 51 seats, eight fewer.
The PL was precisely the favorite destination of the deputies who disembarked from the acronym linked to the centrão, with nine parliamentarians joining the party of the senator (RJ), who is a pre-candidate for the Presidency. On the other hand, two former ministers from the Lula government left the association: (Tourism) went to the PDT in Pará and (Communications) is now a member of the PSDB in Maranhão.
The internal assessment is that the departure of the Bolsonarists and the departure of Lula’s former ministers, despite making the party smaller, will mean that União Brasil will have fewer internal conflicts. On several occasions, the right wing clashed with centrist parliamentarians, who in turn also wanted to avoid an automatic alignment with Lula.
In this way, according to leaders of the acronym, União Brasil became a more traditional acronym of the center and with more cohesion to act as a bloc and define positions on projects and agendas in the Chamber. This should facilitate negotiations with the party in the Legislature.
União Brasil, however, had to work hard to avoid shrinking too much. During the window, the party had a negative balance of 16 parliamentarians. But the acronym’s electoral fund caught the attention of deputies in the final stretch. According to interlocutors, the party president, , even called directly to invite congressmen to join.
The party window is the period in which federal and state deputies can change parties without the risk of losing their mandate due to infidelity. This is because the Electoral Court understands that their mandate belongs to the parties. Senators can change at any time. The window opened in March and closed last Friday (3), six months before the election, scheduled for October.
Having a large number of deputies strengthens parties in political negotiations for candidacies, in addition to facilitating the election of a larger group in the election. The changes now do not impact the division of the electoral fund, which is largely distributed in proportion to the votes for the Chamber and the number of deputies elected by each party in 2022.
Thus, while having more deputies has a positive side to the political issue, it also presents a challenging factor in distributing the electoral fund to more people. In the case of those who lost, the bet is that the funds guaranteed in the previous election will help in the election of new parliamentarians.
