(Belga) Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, supported by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was re-elected on Wednesday at the head of the upper house, facing a former minister of Jair Bolsonaro, during a parliamentary return under high security.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, was also reappointed for a two-year term. Rodrigo Pacheco, elected from the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center), obtained 49 votes, against 32 for his opponent Rogerio Marinho, who was Minister of Regional Development under the mandate of the far-right ex-president (2019- 2022). He needed 41 votes to be reappointed for another two-year term. “We must join hands, so that Brazil is pacified and that the differences remain in the field of politics”, declared Mr. Pacheco before the vote of the senators. Without any real opposition, Arthur Lira, of the center-right Progressistas (PP) party, was re-elected hands down, with the votes of 464 of the 513 deputies, a record. Brazil is emerging from a very polarized election, won by a narrow margin by Lula against Jair Bolsonaro at the end of October. But this young democracy remains above all traumatized by the riots of January 8, when thousands of Bolsonarians refusing to accept the return of the left to power invaded and ransacked the places of power in Brasilia. (Belga)
