Brazil: parties with ministries in the Lula da Silva government represent 51% of the Chamber
The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has ministers from nine different parties, and together, these parties hold 262 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Representatives.
The number exceeds the majority and would allow the approval of projects whose quorum is a simple majority (50% of the votes plus one).
However, for Proposed Amendments to the Constitution (PECs), the quorum is three-fifths — or 308 votes — and the government could struggle.
In addition, there are dissident parliamentarians, that is, even if the party has a position in Lula da Silva’s ministry, parliamentarians have already expressed their opposition to the government.
This is the case of politicians from União Brasil.
MDB and PSD parliamentarians will also be able to declare themselves independent and vote with the government only incidentally.
Among the parties that do not have ministries, PP and Republicans will eventually be able to vote with the government on specific issues.
Of the 37 ministries, the PT (Worker’s Party) took 11; União Brasil, PSD, PSB and MDB got three each; Rede, Psol, PDT and PCdoB each had one folder.
Ten ministries had holders who were not affiliated with parties.
The number of parliamentarians from the allied base is now greater than when Lula da Silva took office for the first time, in 2003, with 219 representatives, and less than in 2007, in his second term, with 311.
These numbers are from a study by the Brazilian Legislative Observatory (OLB), a research center linked to the Institute of Social and Political Studies (Iesp) at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj), cited by CNN.
With information from Brasil Sem Medo
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief · Editorial standards · Report an error