Rio de Janeiro/The right-wing Liberal Party (PL), the party led by former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), achieved 121 deputies in the Sunday legislative elections in Brazilwhich will allow it to have the largest bench reached by a single party with the current Constitution.
The formation that nominated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro for the Presidency increased its number of seats in the Lower House from the current 98 to 121 as of 2027, the first minority and almost a quarter of the 513 deputies in the country, according to the scrutiny released this Monday by the Superior Electoral Court.
Since the promulgation of the current Constitution in 1989, no party had managed to have more than 110 deputies in a legislature.
Since the promulgation of the current Constitution in 1989, no party had managed to have more than 110 deputies in a legislature.
The record was held by the then Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which led the country’s redemocratization process after the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and which obtained 109 deputies in the 1990 elections.
The far-right formation also emerged from the polls as the largest force in the Senate, with 28 of the 81 seats, just over a third, and possibilities of reaching the majority in alliances with other right-wing and far-right forces.
These groups, allied with other right-wing parties, can guarantee or boycott the governability of the next president, who will be elected on November 25 in a second round between Bolsonaro’s first-born son and the current president, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who aspires to re-election.
Flávio Bolsonaro surprised by being the most voted in the first round, with 47.03%, while the progressive leader obtained 45.16%.
The left coalition led by Lula’s PT only managed to increase its bench from the current 82 deputies to 88
The left-wing coalition led by Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) only managed to increase its bench from the current 82 deputies to 88 in the next legislature, which guarantees it the second minority.
Including other formations traditionally allied to the progressive leader, the left will have 124 representatives in the Lower House, the same number it currently has and practically the same representation as Bolsonaro’s party.
The PL grew at the expense of the so-called ‘Centrão’ (center), a group of center-right parties that tends to give a majority to any government, whether left or right, in exchange for benefits and public positions.
The PL grew at the expense of the so-called ‘Centrão’ (center), a group of center-right parties that tends to give a majority to any Government
The number of deputies added by the four main center-right forces, the Progressive Party (PP), the Brazilian Union, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Republicans, fell from 226 to 171, which does not prevent them from once again being decisive for governability through alliances with the winner of the presidential elections.
According to the organization the Inter-Union Department of Parliamentary Advisory (DIAP), which divides deputies by their ideology and not by party, the right has already guaranteed the majority in the next legislature of the Chamber of Deputies by increasing its number of representatives from 248 to 260.
The left raised its representation from 98 to 103 and both the center-right and center lost space, with their benches reduced from 94 to 81 and from 50 to 48 respectively.
