The Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE), one of the main thematic groups in the National Congress, will gain strength starting next year.
Many candidates for federal deputies and senators who declare themselves evangelicals were victorious in this year’s elections.
According to an updated estimate from the caucus president, up to now, 132 deputies and 14 senators have been counted and are expected to be part of the FPE in the next legislature, from 2023 to 2026.
The numbers represent a historical record in relation to the number of parliamentarians integrating the caucus.
Compared to the current composition (112 deputies and 11 senators), the increase is almost 19%.
In the new formation, a little more than 25% of the House will be members of the caucus; in the Senate, this number corresponds to 17%.
Not all evangelical congressmen belong to the caucus.
Besides their religious affiliation, most of the members share values and worldviews aligned with conservatism.
It is common, for example, the opposition of the evangelical front to agendas related to gender ideology and the legalization of abortion and drugs.
In practice, the reinforcement means greater difficulties for advancing so-called “progressive” agendas in a legislature that will coincide with the new mandate of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, progressive-globalist) as President of the Republic.
VIGILANT
To the Gazeta do Povo outlet, the president of the FPE, federal deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), said that the members of the parliamentary front would remain attentive to the steps of the new federal government under Lula da Silva’s management,
With the caucus strengthened with more members, they will react to curb an eventual shift to the left in Congress.
“We must wait for the government to take office to see if they will return with the same prejudice and persecution to the conservative agendas of other left-wing governments or if they will act more mildly.”
“We need to be calm, and at each attempt of the future government’s duck, we will have a reaction with a bench that will be stronger than in other legislatures”, declares Cavalcante.
The deputy says he expects Lula da Silva to leave aside the articulation to advance the agendas considered sensitive to the bench.
“I don’t want to pre-judge the new government. I want to wait. We already know their DNA, but we will see the intensity of what lies ahead.”
“And it is the government that dictates the intensity of the battle. If the government leaves aside a little the affronts to Christian values, I think we will remain in the trench, waiting for any attack at any moment”, continues the president of the parliamentary front.
NAMES OF MEMBERS
The list of names of parliamentarians raised by the president of the parliamentary front will be released only after the certification of the elected candidates, which should occur until Dec. 19.
According to Cavalcante, several elected deputies and evangelical senators asked that the list be made public only after they have been certified by the Regional Electoral Courts (TREs).
This is because part of some parliamentarians fearss reprisals by the Electoral Justice for supporting conservative agendas, and certification is precisely the act by which the electoral body attests that the candidate was effectively elected and can take office.
“We live in Brazil’s dark times regarding the Judiciary, especially the TSE [Superior Electoral Court]. Many of our parliamentarians have problems with accountability because they are conservative, right-wingers. We will wait for the certificationi to pass, and then we will release the list,” says Sóstenes Cavalcante.
VOTING CHAMPIONS
Several names well known to voters across the country are among the new evangelical congressmen who will fill seats in both houses of the federal legislature.
One of them is Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), who was the most-voted federal deputy in Brazil in these elections, with almost 1.5 million votes.
Some congressmen won the most votes in their states who will integrate the FPE.
One of them is André Fernandes (PL-CE): son of a pastor and current state deputy in Ceará, the congressman received almost 230 thousand votes from the Ceará electorate in the race for the House of Representatives, being the most voted candidate in the state.
Another candidate who will join the evangelical bench starting in 2023, Fábio Garcia (União-MT), was close to breaking the 100 thousand votes in Mato Grosso when running for the House of Representatives was also the candidate who received the most votes in his state.
The former coordinator of the task force of Operation Lava Jato and former federal prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR), also an evangelical, was the most-voted federal deputy in Paraná.
He received 345,000 votes.
Closing the list, federal deputy André Ferreira (PL-CE) was reelected this year with the most votes in Pernambuco. He received 273,000 votes, 100,000 more than in his first election four years ago.
Examples of other important elected names that will compose the evangelical bench in the next legislature are Pastor Magno Malta (PL-ES), who returns to the Senate after being out of office for four years, and Jair Bolsonaro’s former minister, Damares Alves (Republicans-DF), who is also a pastor and will occupy one of the seats in the Senate.
Among the current left-wing congressmen who will remain after 2023 are deputies Benedita da Silva (PT-RJ) and Rejane Dias (PT-PI), and senator Eliziane Gama (Citizenship-MA). Marina Silva (Rede-SP), elected to the Chamber this year, should be part of the caucus as of next year.
At least one federal deputy elected as an evangelical has publicly said he will not be part of the bench: Pastor Henrique Vieira, from PSOL, maintains a position contrary to that defended by the vast majority of the FPE’s members.