BRASILIA (Reuters) -The PP, party of the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), the PDT, the PSB, União Brasil, the PSDB-Cidadania federation, Avante, Patriota and Solidariedade decided to join in a super block with more than 170 deputies, announced leaders of the parties this Wednesday, surpassing the block formed at the end of March with 142 deputies.
Having a number in the House –read as votes– guarantees bargaining power and political capital to any parliamentary group that is constituted. For this very reason, the new blocão must establish itself as a political force that cannot be disregarded by the government, if it wants to see the approval of the project for the fiscal framework, which requires an absolute majority, and the Proposal for an Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) for the reform tax, which needs at least 308 favorable votes in two rounds of voting.
The new super block announced this afternoon brings together parties from various political spectrums – from the PP, which supported the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, to the PSB and the PDT, more identified with leftist agendas and allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This, however, maintain its members, will not be a problem.
“We are going to start this block by symbolizing that it is a block that will try to help President Lula to pave the way for governance and have a solid base here in the Chamber”, said PSB leader Felipe Carreras (PE), who will also be responsible for leading the block for two months, when provisional measures and important projects for the government must be voted on, such as the new fiscal framework and the tax reform.
Leaders of the parties that make up the bloc agreed that their leadership will be defined based on a rotation, giving preference to deputies from parties more aligned with President Lula at this first moment.
The leader of the PDT, André Figueiredo (CE), recognized the ideological differences between the members of the new bloc, but pondered that it will enable “broad governance”. He also stated that “the parties of the left field will not be mere accessories”. He also explained that parties the size of the PDT would be at a disadvantage to demand rapporteurs and collegiate presidencies, defined by criteria of proportionality.
“We would never be in a position to apply for a rapporteurship,” Figueiredo told journalists. “The smaller parties will be empowered.”
Figueiredo pointed out that the choice of Carreras – co-religionist of the vice president and Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin – as the first leader of the bloc demonstrates that this will not be a group independent of the government.
The formation of the new bloc articulated by Lira, of course, pleases the part of the PP that wants to align itself with the Lula government, in addition to placing the parliamentary group at the top of the list with preference in defining the rapporteurs of matters and chairing committees, evaluated a source who followed the negotiations.
And it explicitly demonstrates a reaction to the bloc with 142 deputies formed at the end of March by MDB, PSD, Podemos, PSC and the Republicans — until then one of the acronyms of the so-called centrão alongside the PL and the PP.
The Chamber’s system appoints a total of 173 deputies, including the parliamentarians of all parties in the new bloc. But leaders of the acronym explained that two deputies had not been accounted for in the House system and that, in fact, the bloc has 175 parliamentarians.
(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello and Ricardo BritoEditing by Alexandre Caverni)