Lula-backed name re-elected Senate president

Rodrigo Pacheco gets two more years as the Senate president. Photo: Edilson Rodrigues/SF

Rodrigo Pacheco, a center-right senator from Minas Gerais, secured re-election as president of the Brazilian Senate on Wednesday evening. He received 49 votes from his peers (out of a total of 81). His success also came as a great victory for the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Mr. Pacheco defeated newcomer Rogério Marinho, who served as regional development minister under Jair Bolsonaro and was supported by other former ministers of the previous government, currently in the Senate.

The results will pave the way for the Lula administration to place major reforms on the legislative agenda, such as tax reform and a new fiscal framework, both promised by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.

Both candidates were heavily involved in the “secret budget,” the Bolsonaro administration’s opaque system of parliamentary grants that gave lawmakers unprecedented power over the federal budget in exchange for political support. Mr. Pacheco was one of the leaders of the secret budget’s disbursements, while Mr. Marinho ran the department from where most of the funds originated.

Mr. Pacheco helped the Bolsonaro administration by refusing to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s mishandling of the Covid pandemic. He was later forced to do so by a Supreme Court order. In 2022, Mr. Pacheco delayed and ultimately killed a select committee to investigate corruption in the Education Ministry.

Supporting the incumbent Mr. Pacheco rather than choosing a new candidate was a realpolitik effort on the part of the government. Despite having a positive relationship with the previous far-right administration, Mr. Pacheco is seen as a moderate who may be more flexible in negotiations with the Executive branch.

Mr. Marinho, on other hand, pledged in his campaign for the Senate to act against “abuses” by the Supreme Court — a dog-whistle term among pro-Bolsonaro diehards, who see the court as an obstacle to the far-right.

“A victory for Rogério Marinho would have meant the end of the Lula administration — at least the one that took office on January 1,” says Mario Sérgio Lima, senior Brazil analyst at Medley Global Advisors and a columnist for The Brazilian Report.

Despite today’s defeat, Bolsonarism is far from dead. The pro-Bolsonaro Rogério Marinho received 32 votes — five more than the minimum required to open a select committee. So expect a fierce opposition that will try to make life difficult for the Lula government at every turn.

The Senate’s next task is to decide who will head the chamber’s standing committees, the most disputed of which are the Foreign Affairs and Constitution and Justice Committees. The latter holds confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees.

In his victory speech, Mr. Pacheco called for pacification of Brazil’s political system. But he warned that “pacification does not mean forgiving those who attack democratic institutions.”

“I emphasize that January 8 is being overcome, but it won’t be forgotten,” he said about riots carried out by far-right radicals at the beginning of the year.