Brazil: four names dispute the command of the evangelical caucus in Congress

The legislative activities in the National Congress return this Wednesday (1), and the members of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE) are already articulating themselves to choose the new president of the caucus, which in the last legislature was led by congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ).

The election is scheduled for Thursday morning (2), one day after the Executive Board of the House of Representatives election.

The choice of a new leader of the evangelical caucus occurs every two years since its foundation in Congress in 2003, but this is the first time that the parliamentary front has four candidates in dispute for its command since, at other times, there has always been consensus around a single name.

Divergences about the relationship with the Lula government (PT) and the support for the reelection of Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to the presidency of the House made it impossible to support any of the candidates massively.

Sóstenes will not seek reelection since he must run for the PL’s seat on the Board of Directors, and this prevents him from chairing parliamentary fronts and commissions.

To Gazeta do Povo, the congressman from Rio de Janeiro said that the congressmen who have launched themselves as candidates to chair the evangelical caucus so far are Senator Carlos Viana (PL-MG) and Federal Congressmen Silas Câmara (Republicans-AM), Otoni de Paula (MDB-RJ), and Eli Borges (PL-TO).

ALL CANDIDATES WERE BOLSONARO SUPPORTERS

The four names in the race have positioned themselves as allies of former President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro (PL) over the past four years.

Three of them are pastors linked to the Assembly of God: Silas Câmara, Otoni de Paula, and Eli Borges.

Carlos Viana, the only one of the candidates who is not a pastor, attends the Baptist Church.

A survey by O Globo with members of the evangelical caucus points out that deputies Silas and Otoni are the favorites to take over the command.

The former has already chaired the Evangelical Parliamentary Front in 2019 and 2020 and has the support of the Republicans, which has 19 evangelical congressmen.

According to the O Globo report, Silas has a good transit between churches.

He has already mediated an agreement between Sóstenes and deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), which would have avoided a split in the caucus last year.

On the other hand, Otoni, who in recent years WAS Bolsonaro’s ally, now seeks to present himself as the name with the best dialogue with the new government.

He attended the inaugurations of three MDB ministers appointed by Lula – Jader Filho (Cities), Renan Filho (Transportation), and Simone Tebet (Planning) – and even criticized the former president for being silent about the protests after the election.

Another candidate for the position, deputy Eli Borges was the spokesperson of the evangelical caucus last year.

In an interview with Gazeta do Povo last year, he said that his biggest challenge was to prevent the advance of agendas such as neutral language, gender ideology, health passport, and legalization of marijuana.

The last postulant to the presidency of the bench, Senator Carlos Viana, should at least preside over the Evangelical Front in the Senate, which was created at the end of last year and should count with about 14 senators who declare themselves evangelicals, among them Magno Malta (PL-ES) and Damares Alves (Republicans-DF).

With more members, the bench may be a “stone in Lula’s shoe”.

Some parliamentarians on the left are betting that Lula will win the support of part of the evangelical caucus despite the ideological distance.

This possibility, however, is not well seen by PL members, especially the current president.

Sóstenes Cavalcante says that, in his evaluation, the priority of the parliamentary front this year should be “the resistance to the attacks of the left-wing government”.

“They have already started with neutral pronouns, sustaining normative instructions on abortion in the Ministry of Health, etc. It will be a year of ideological warfare against the government that has already shown what it came for in this first month,” declared the congressman.

In the new legislature, the new formation of the bench is more numerous than the previous one, a scenario that the deputy points out as more favorable to blocking agendas related to gender ideology and the legalization of abortion and drugs.

The estimate of the president of the caucus at the end of December was that at least 132 parliamentarians and 14 senators should be part of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front starting in 2023, which represents an increase of 19% in comparison with the last legislature and a historical record of members of the caucus.

The definitive list has not yet been finalized and should be released soon.

With information from Gazeta do Povo

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