With the return of activities in the legislature, one of the biggest challenges for the federal government is the search for an approximation of the group of conservative parliamentarians of the evangelical bench. The evaluation is from researchers heard by Brazil agencyamong them the writer André Ítalo, who launched at the end of last year the book The Bible bench: a story of political conversions (Publisher, however, 301 pages).
The researcher explains that the evangelical bench, despite having a more conservative position on customs agendas, historically proved pro-government on other topics, such as those of the economy. “It doesn’t matter if it was left or right government, it was a group close to the executive.”
One causes, he says, would be the convenience of maintaining privileges as tax exemption for churches.
He recalls that, in the governments prior to that of Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff, Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro, there was the presence of shepherds in the first echelons. There was also support from evangelicals to Fernando Collor and Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
But he considers that the government of Jair Bolsonaro was a “watershed” in this historic ruling of evangelicals. “Bolsonaro was the first right -wing president who had an ideological affinity relationship with the evangelical bench.” But with Lula’s return to power, the Bible bench is no longer a ruling, the researcher evaluates.
According to André Italo, the bench has grown slower, different from what happened in the late 1990s and in 2010. “It is natural because the very growth of the evangelical population has also been slower. It is also important to point out that the proportion of evangelicals in the Chamber [menos de 20%] is smaller than that of evangelicals in the population [cerca de 30%]”Explains the researcher.
The researcher says that today, in the House, there are around 90 to 100 evangelical deputies, from a total of 513. In the Senate, there is between 10 and 15, a total of 81.
Growth pains
Professor Leonardo Barreto, from the University of Brasilia (UnB), ponders that the evangelical bench is not homogeneous. “There are several segments on the bench as well as different strategies. The most consolidated is that of the Universal Church, which has been consolidated in a political party, which is the Republicans, and today presides over the House, ”he notes.
The expert understands that the Republican Party strategy was one of the most sophisticated by opening to non -evangelical politicians, as is the case of the House of Representatives, Hugo Motta. “The party made this opening, and this strategy was very right,” he said. But at the same time, the bench, in the teacher’s assessment, is facing the “pain of growth”.
Barreto analyzes that representatives of these parties would like to go more to the center of the political spectrum, but are pressured by an evangelical base that became more conservative and more right than it was. “The bench met in a right -wing conservative spectrum that ends up limiting the choice options. The base was deliberately politicized, ”he believes.
Base
One of the revelations of André Italo’s book was the story of the first federal deputy pastor in Brazil, with the support of his church. “He was a pastor from São Paulo, named Levi Tavares [no mandato de 1967 – 1971]. He was out of politics. ”
But it was during the constituent, with the 1986 elections, that the name of evangelical bench emerged. “That’s when the evangelical churches realized that they needed to participate in politics because there was a fear that Catholicism would be very strongly involved in the constituent and eventually became the official religion of the country,” he explains.
The researcher contextualizes that there were sectors of the Catholic Church that opposed the dictatorship (1964 – 1985), and were allies of leftist groups. To him, this binding contributed to the evangelical churches to be right on the right. “When the dictatorship is over, the evangelical churches got this fear. Because of this fear, evangelicals mobilized and elected several deputies. In that first moment there were 32 deputies, ”he says.
André Italo differentiates what is considered “Bible bench” and what is the evangelical parliamentary front, which is an institutionalized group, with 219 deputies and 26 senators of different parties, including center and leftist. There are a minimum number of signatures to create the front, 171 parliamentarians.
“Evangelical deputies are about 90. They alone cannot create the front. So they need the help of non -evangelical deputies. ”
According to Italo’s survey, the front has a group of parliamentary advisers who meet every Monday to mapping which guidelines will be discussed in the main commissions that week in the House, which are more sensitive to evangelicals . On Tuesday, evangelical deputies discuss the program. Currently, the front coordinator is Deputy Silas Câmara (Republicans – AM).
The report contacted the advisory of the leader of the Evangelical Front to comment on the work of the front, but had no return.
