Bolsonaro’s on-again, off-again relationship with Congress

President Jair Bolsonaro began his term with a pledge to inaugurate a new era in Brazilian politics, one free from shady negotiations based on horse-trading schemes. But the administration soon found out the hard way that while politics is not necessarily a criminal activity, one must have communication skills and savvy to approve anything in a Congress as fragmented as Brazil’s.

Six months into his administration, Jair Bolsonaro still has a fragile relationship with the legislature—which has been rocked further by scandals and outraged tweets. The heads of both congressional houses have called the government, on the record, “clumsy” and a “crisis factory”—with House Speaker Rodrigo Maia saying the president should be more concerned about passing bills than posting on Twitter.

As a result, the government’s reformist agenda has stalled. While Congress is preparing for its July vacations, there appears to be no time left to vote the pension reform bill on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Data collected by newspaper Estado de S.Paulo shows that, due to a lack of dialogue with the Legislative branch, the government spent a grand total of 42 days without sending voting guidelines to its caucus. Only former President Dilma Rousseff, famous...