MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lira reelected Speaker of Brazil's Lower House by overwhelming majority

Lira had 464 votes, followed by Chico Alencar with 21

Congressman Arthur Lira (PP-AL) was reelected Wednesday as Speaker of Brazil's Lower House for the next two years. It will be Lira's fourth term on the post after garnering a record 464 votes. The second most-voted candidate was Deputy Chico Alencar (PSOL-RJ) with 21 votes, followed by Deputy Marcel Van Hatten (Novo-RS) with 19 votes. There were also five blank votes.

During his speech, Lira said his priority now would be to focus on the tax reform, Agencia Brasil reported.

As Lira became emotional during the speech when talking about his father, the 80-year-old former Senator Benedito de Lira, who fainted at the ceremony and needed medical assistance.

Lira said he will seek to build a relationship with the Executive Branch without a relationship of subordination, but a pact to improve and advance public policies, “based on careful listening of opinions and suggestions from our committees.

”We may have adversaries, but we are not each other's enemies. This will be the keynote of the House in the coming years,“ Lira said. He also affirmed that he would not agree ”passively“ to the invalidation by the Courts through appeals filed by minority groups against acts of Congress.

In his speech, Lira also said that the 464 votes were the ”recognition of a dynamic of work, the result of this election is a concrete demonstration that, in good politics, it is possible to disagree, to debate, but in the end, build consensus, decide and act, always for the benefit of Brazil.“

The congressman also affirmed that the ”diverse, multicultural Brazil is only possible because it is democratic.” The deputy criticized the acts of vandalism that ransacked the National Congress, the Supreme Court (STF), and the Planalto Palace on Jan. 8 this year.

“This House will not welcome, defend or endorse any act, speech, or demonstration that threatens democracy. Whoever acts in this manner will be repulsed by this Parliament, rejected by the Brazilian people, and subject to the rigors of the law. For those who have depredated, vandalized, and shamed the Brazilian people, there will be the rigor of the law,” he said. “To the vandals and instrumentalists of chaos who promoted last January 8, I affirm: In Brazil, no political regime will prosper outside of Democracy. There will never be a Brazil without free elections and representatives chosen by popular vote,” he added.

According to Lira, “it is time to deflate Brazil and relax relations”. For Lira, each of the Powers must act within their functions as defined by the Constitution.

“It is time to see each one in its constitutional square - to see the Powers articulating again, interacting with the exact clarity of where the space of one ends and that of the other begins,” he said. “We can no longer allow the decisions made in this House to be constantly judicialized and accepted without legal support. It remains for us, invested by popular power, to exercise every day the good politics of understanding, conciliation, and balance,” he added.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)