Congressman Arthur Lira of the Progressives Party was re-elected this Wednesday as president of the Chamber of Deputies with the support of 20 parties, garnering 464 votes out of 513 seats, the highest vote in history.
His only opponents, Chico Alencar of the Socialism and Liberty Party (Psol) and Marcel van Hattem of the Novo Party, obtained 21 and 19 votes, respectively, and there were five blank votes.
The voting was carried out electronically by the 513 deputies who took their seats this Wednesday after last October’s elections.
Lira obtained 161 votes more than in 2021 when he ran for the first time in the elections halfway through the term of former president Jair Bolsonaro, of whom he was an ally.
This time, the Speaker supported Bolsonaro’s PL and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party (PT), the largest benches in the House, and other minor parties.
In his speech after the vote, Lira affirmed that he would be a “firm voice in favor of the prerogatives and freedom of expression of each parliamentarian.”
“This February 1, 2023, is the proof that Brazil is a mature democracy, prepared and made by a great majority of people who fight and defend freedom, the right to contradict, the hope for a future of prosperity and the betterment of the Brazilian people,” he stated.
Since 1985, the presidents of the Chamber who gathered the most votes had been Ibsen Pinheiro in 1991 and João Paulo Cunha, in 2003, with 434 votes from their peers.