Good morning! Today, we talk about the always-fluid political landscape in the lower house. The government’s risky move against hate speech. Petrobras cuts emissions. And how sustainable is the recent market surge?
☕ If you like our work and want to give us an extra boost, you can fill up our reporters’ coffee mugs. Supporters get exclusive perks! Find out more.
The House has a new ‘supergroup’
In an initiative spearheaded by House Speaker Arthur Lira, nine political parties (from the center-left to the rent-seeking right) have joined together to form the largest party bloc in the House, which will operate as a loose association throughout the legislature. The new “supergroup” will control 173 of the House’s 513 seats, or one-third of the chamber.
- The move comes in response to an initiative by five other centrist and center-right parties that announced their own 142-seat supergroup two weeks ago.
Strange bedfellows. The bloc unites lawmakers from the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) and the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), strong allies of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration (Vice President Geraldo Alckmin is a member of the PSB) — but also Speaker Lira’s Progressives (PP) party, which was an integral part of...