Congress actually renewed only 8% of its seats in elections last day 2. Result bulletins showed that most of the elected deputies and senators have already held mandates, high government posts or are heirs of traditional political names. Apart from these situations, there are only 39 MPs without political affiliation who will take office in 2023. In the Senate, only one elected senator has never previously held public office.
The inauguration of MPs in February will result in the exchange of 45% of the seats in the chamber. But this substitution obscures ties that testify to the continuity of the dominant groups in Brazilian politics, according to a survey conducted by the Millennium Institute, to which Estadao had access.
The study only considers those who have never had a mandate as an extension. According to the authors, the results of the polls not only support the current configuration of the political game in Brasilia, but also make it difficult for new names to get into the Legislative Assembly.
Among the elect there are those who will take power under the weight of dynasties, as in the case of the Arraes and Campos families in Pernambuco. Joao Campos, son of Eduardo Campos; and Marilia Arraes, granddaughter of Miguel Arraes, arrived at the Chamber in 2018. Joao went to the mayor of Recife, and Marilia is now trying to become governor, but the clan will not be left without representatives in Congress. Pedro Campos (PSB), 26, brother Joao; and Maria Arraes (Solidariada), aged 28, Marilia’s sister, are among the elected deputies.
Among the “news” are old acquaintances of the Congress, such as Eunicio Oliveira (MDB), an MP elected by Ceara. Eunisio’s curriculum includes the presidency of the Senate and two previous terms in the House. Maranhao’s main political family heiress Rosana Sarni (MDB) was also elected MP after serving four times as governor in addition to being a senator. Rosana had passed through the Room before, as had Eunisio.
sponsored
Other “newcomers” are not political in the blood, but have been sponsored after they have taken high positions in ministries or secretariats, such as Eduardo Pazuello (PL-RJ), former Minister of Health; and Mario Frias, who was Minister of Culture in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Not to mention the state deputies, advisers and those who held other positions in government bodies.
“There is a tendency to leave Congress less fragmented, with established names. This brings some stability to the political game, but such a model harms new participants, ”says one of the authors of the study, political scientist Diogo Costa. journalist Priscila Chammas and data scientist Wagner Vargas. For Costa, low turnover is due to the concentration of public resources to fund those already in political circles. In the list of elected candidates for re-election received 80% more resources than those who did not run for a new term. “The risk is that this model will get stuck and turn into a template,” the political scientist said.
The federal candidate with the highest proportional vote in the country, 21-year-old Amon Mandel (Citizenship-AM), will be the second youngest in the House. He was elected with 288,555 votes, representing 14.5% of the total valid votes in Amazonas. Despite his age, Mandel also does not fit into an effective renewal, as he is a councilor in Manaus and comes from a family that holds positions in the Amazonas judiciary.
Domingos Jorge Chalub Pereira, grandfather of the elected deputy, is a judge of the Amazonas Court and presided over the court. Mother, Elsa Vitoria de Mello, is also a state judge. The stepfather, Mario de Mello, is an advisor to the Amazon Accounting Office. Mandel said his environmentally driven political action is not about family. “There is no new policy and no old policy. There are good policies and bad policies, and I try to make good ones. I have many clashes with my grandfather. It doesn’t exist for me,” he said.
Even in the list of 39 elected deputies, who, according to the criteria of the study, represent an effective renewal in the Chamber, there are names that already have a political history. This is the case of Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), the MP with the most votes in São Paulo, who was a candidate for the Palazzo Planalto in 2018; and Bandeira de Mello (PSB-RJ), former president of Flamengo who worked for Rede and PSB.
Pure blood
Outside of these circles, there are digital influencers who make their political debuts through their social media followings. This is where Delegado da Cunha (PP-SP), known for his internet broadcasts of police operations, and Fabio Teruel (MDB-SP), a motivational and religious speaker, come into play. Newcomers to the “pure blood” also include former Lava Jato prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-SP) and truck driver Ze Trovao (PL-SK), who were elected with an ankle bracelet. Trovan was punished for attacking the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
“In order to be elected, a deputy needs to collect at least 70,000 votes in medium and large states. So it is very difficult for a newcomer to get in unless he transfers his popularity from somewhere else, like a celebrity or an influencer, ”the politician said. scholar João Feres Junior, coordinator of the Brazilian Legislative Observatory (OLB), an organization associated with the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). “Most parties do not have internal democracy and are controlled by the oligarchy. The most powerful person in the party bureaucracy wins the most, although it is not suitable to be someone’s child.
In the Senate, of the 27 candidates elected on the 2nd, 22 are not currently in the House. However, most of them are experienced politicians, such as former governors Flavio Dino (Maranhao) of the PSB and Renan Filho (Alagoas) of the MDB, the eldest son of Senator Renan Caleiros. Only one candidate who won the race never held public office: rural businessman Jaime Bagattoli (PL-RO), a supporter of Bolsonaro.
