Brazil’s Bolsonaro joins PL and seals link with Centrão voting bloc

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After two years with no party and months of negotiations, President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday, November 30, signed his affiliation to the PL (Liberal Party) to run for reelection in 2022.

The affiliation ceremony took place on Evangelical Day, at the Brasil 21 Complex, in Brasília, and was attended by legislators and ministry officials. Minister of Regional Development Rogério Marinho and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the president’s first son, also joined the PL yesterday.

In his inauguration speech, Bolsonaro thanked PL chairman Costa Neto for the “confidence,” but said that the party choice “was not easy.” “Obviously this makes us quite happy. It’s a sign that we are liked. We can’t please everyone, but we do our best,” the President said. “No party will be forgotten by us,” he assured. “We want composition in the states.”

The President also praised Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, his nominee to the Court – “a Justice who has done his job” – and reiterated his support for André Mendonça, his nominee for the vacant seat. “André has spoken with all senators,” he stated.

The chief executive then declared that he will never submit a bill to control the media or social networks. Bolsonaro closed his speech echoing his 2018 slogan: “Brazil above everything, God above all.”

BACKGROUND

The affiliation was originally scheduled for November 22, but was deferred after disagreements between Bolsonaro and the PL chairman. The President demanded that the party should withdraw its support for the candidacy of São Paulo deputy governor Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB) for the gubernatorial race next year, a request that Valdemar Costa Neto met.

According to Bolsonaro, the PL also pledged not to enter into formal alliances with leftist parties in the 2022 elections.

Bolsonaro’s affiliation to the PL comes after the President failed to create a party to call his own, the “Aliança pelo Brasil.” Unable to secure the required signatures, the Chief Executive tried to attract the Patriota and PRTB parties, but also failed.

It was precisely the demand for greater control of party activity that led to the public disagreement between Bolsonaro and the party through which he was elected to lead the country, the PSL. The President also negotiated with Progressistas (PP) and received an invitation to join the PTB.

In 2018, Bolsonaro ran a campaign marked by criticism of the Centrão. At the time, he said that then-candidate Geraldo Alckmin, who had PL as an ally, would have partnered with the worst in politics.

Currently, the Centrão is at the heart of the government: Bolsonaro handed over the position of Chief of Staff, the main Ministry of the Esplanade, to Ciro Nogueira, then president of PP, the strongest party, along with PL, that is in the congressional voting bloc.