Bolsonaro Ally Senator Rodrigo Pacheco to Head Congress After Senate Vote

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Senate on Monday, February 1st, chose a lawmaker endorsed by President Jair Bolsonaro to head the upper chamber, giving the conservative leader a base among center-right politicians with whom he had once vowed never to ally.

Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG) won a two-year leadership term by a vote of 57-21.

Another Bolsonaro ally, Arthur Lira of the right-wing Progressive Party(PP-AL), is expected to win the presidency of the lower house later on Monday.

Bolsonaro’s support for Pacheco and Lira underscore his embrace of a fragmented bloc of lawmakers known more for their horse-trading prowess than ideological commitments, called the ‘Centrão,’ or ‘Big Center.’

The president ran in 2018 on a pledge to clean up the capital and end decades of pay-to-play politics that culminated in a record-breaking corruption scandal known as Lava-Jato (Car Wash).

But a stronger standing in Congress should dispel for now the growing clamor for his impeachment from critics who have filed 57 requests to unseat him, mainly for his (mis)handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed some 224,000 Brazilians.

Pacheco, of the center-right Democratas party, has vowed to seek a compromise between fiscal restraints and assistance to socially vulnerable Brazilians hurt by the pandemic.

He has also said he would not make a priority of privatizing Eletrobras, Latin America’s largest utility and one of the government’s biggest potential asset sales as it works to cut the fiscal deficit. Pacheco’s home state of Minas Gerais is known for its support of Eletrobras, which employs thousands of its residents.

Bolsonaro’s popular support, along with a growing willingness to discuss traditional horse-trading in Congress, have helped him secure a political base of center-right lawmakers.

Opening the cash taps has also helped. Newspaper Estado de S. Paulo reported last week that Bolsonaro authorized R$3 billion (US$555 million) in parliamentary budget riders to be released to legislators supporting his candidates.