MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula da Silva's coalition dismembers

The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, (PMDB) decided this Sunday to abandon the ruling coalition of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and adopt an “independent” position in Congress.

The decision was adopted at the end of the party's national convention and following a legal battle which finished with the victory of the leadership of PMDB that defended the motion to stop supporting the ruling party of President Lula da Silva.

With 76 Deputies and 22 Senators PMDB is the political force that until now, ensured Mr. Lula da Silva an ample majority in Congress including the approval of constitutional amendments which need three fifths of votes from the Lower and Higher Houses.

The convention was embroiled in a legal battle following the "pro government" faction's presentation of a judicial preliminary order which banned the assembly.

However the majority of the party managed Sunday afternoon to have the order repealed and went ahead with the vote to decide to abandon the ruling coalition.

The meeting with representatives from 22 of the 27 regional boards also ordered all those PMDB members occupying government posts to immediately abandon them or resign to the party.

The convention's vote involves Communication Minister Eunicio Oliveira and Social Security Minister Amir Lando.

According to PMDB president Michel Temer the party from now on will adopt an "independent" position regarding the federal government and will begin building the foundations to dispute with its own candidate the presidential election of 2006, when Mr. Lula da Silva is anticipated will be running for re-election. PMDB is the second party in leaving the ruling coalition in less than 24 hours.

The leadership of Brazil's Socialist Popular Party, PPS, voted last Saturday to leave President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's ruling coalition and give up government jobs in order to assume an independent position in the Federal Congress.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party's national leadership in Rio de Janeiro during which the leader of PPS and Congressman Roberto Freire attacked Lula's economic policies.

"This government unfortunately, is conservative; it is not leftist" underlined Mr. Freire. The Socialist Popular Party, or PPS, has only one representative in the Cabinet, National Integration Minister Ciro Gomes, a former presidential candidate, and a few others in second-tier government jobs. PPS made up of former Communists has 23 seats out of 513 in Deputies, and two Senators out of a total of 81. "We don't need to give our representatives time to leave administration jobs. They must leave or leave right now, or abandon the party", said Roberto Freire.

However Mr. Ciro Gomes indicated he had offered his resignation and expects President Lula da Silva not to accept it since he's determined to continue in government and abandon the party.

Both coalition partners have been instrumental in passing important legislation for President Lula's administration and if they return to the opposition it could be an important blow for the government agenda.

Last week former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso returned to Brazil from his self imposed "political exile" and severely criticized President Lula da Silva for his lack of "imagination" and "effectiveness" in addressing the country's main challenges.

His speech was interpreted as a hat in the ring for the 2006 presidential election when Mr. Lula da Silva is expected to seek another four years.

In last October's municipal elections Mr. Cardoso's party recovered the government of the city of Sao Paulo, a vital piece in the Brazilian political chess.

The Workers Party of Mr. Lula also lost Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul and traditionally a stronghold of his party and a launching pad for the world's leftist, anti-globalization and anti-Davos "Darwinian" capitalism movement.