Is Jair Bolsonaro About to Join the Brazilian Democrats Party?

By Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Allegedly dissatisfied with the behavior of some Social Liberal Party (PSL) deputies, President Jair Bolsonaro has confided to advisors that he could shift parties and join the Democrats Party (DEM), writes Brazilian news outlet Istoé in its latest report.

He claims that the PSL does not advocate his projects as it should and that many PSL deputies are working against his decisions.

The most notable case was provisional measure (MP) 870, which ordered the administrative restructuring of his government, reducing it from 29 to 22 ministries, but which also transfered the Coaf tax investigation agency to the Judiciary, writes Istoé.

In the Senate negotiations to uphold the Lower Chamber’s decision on the MP, while removing the Coaf from Sérgio Moro and returning it to Minister Paulo Guedes, PSL senators were insisting on breaking this agreement, jeopardizing the reduction of the ministries. Bolsonaro was not pleased.

The PSL has apparently been displeasing Bolsonaro for quite some time now. In February, the party’s president, Luciano Bivar, voted against the government in the Access to Information Act. And now PSL deputies are urging the president to sanction the law banning the luggage fees on airplanes, while companies are asking the government to veto the measure.

Bolsonaro is said to believe he will gain greater appreciation if he joins DEM, the party of three of his ministers: Onyx Lorenzoni (Civil Cabinet), Luiz Henrique Mandetta (Health), and Tereza Cristina (Agriculture). All of whom, incidentally, are doing a good job. This is a further source of friction: PSL has no minister while DEM has three.

Istoé is a weekly news magazine in Portuguese published in Brazil, roughly the equivalent of the American magazines Time or Newsweek.