Brazil’s congressional caucuses: the new political parties?

Since October’s election, the focus of Brazilian politics has been on the president-elect Jair Bolsonaro and the composition of his inaugural cabinet. After matters of defense were handed over to the military; the economy entrusted to ultraliberal banker Paulo Guedes, and the anti-corruption poster boy Sergio Moro was made the new justice “superminister,” thoughts turned to exactly how Mr. Bolsonaro would divvy up the rest of his cabinet seats.

The Ministry of Education was always going to be a controversial pick, with much of the president-elect’s campaign platform being about putting an end to what he and his followers perceive as “left-wing indoctrination” in Brazilian schools. It came as a surprise, then, when news filtered through that Mozart Ramos was Mr. Bolsonaro’s pick.

Mr. Ramos is one of the best-known figures in Brazilian education today, being the president of the Ayrton Senna Institute and a former rector of the Federal University of Pernambuco. His appointment would have signaled an unexpected moderation from the future government, amid a selection of admittedly extreme ministers.

However, the news of Mozart Ramos becoming the new Minister of Education angered a group of congressmen, who work together as a parliamentary front to defend Evangelical Christian values and policies. The reason for their indignation was that Mr. Ramos is not in favor of the “Schools Without Political Parties” program, the cause célèbre of the Brazilian religious right-wing.

The aforementioned program would impose a series of limitations...