Brazil’s supreme electoral court (TSE) has unanimously approved the creation of the country’s 29th political party, Partido Pátria Livre (PPL), which emerged from the left-wing Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro (MR8, which was behind the kidnapping of the US ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick at the height of the military dictatorship in 1969). Days earlier the TSE green lighted a more significant political entity - the new Partido Social Democrático (PSD), led by the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab. The PSD is set to become the third largest group in the federal parliament, displacing the main opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), which is mired in an existential crisis. Though the PSD has its roots in the PSDB-allied conservative Democratas, Kassab promptly allied it in congress with the centre-left ruling coalition led by President Dilma Rousseff.
Ricardo Lewandowski, the president of the TSE, was critical. Acerbically commenting that Brazil is “innovating in political science”, he complained that the country is moving beyond ‘pluripartidarismo’ (a plural, multi-party system) to ‘hiperpartidarismo’ (roughly, a hyper pluralist system). The irony is that the Rousseff government, with the assistance of former president Lula da Silva (2003-2010), is currently trying to introduce a political reform bill to congress that would, among other things, amend the voting system in a bid to end the parliamentary overrepresentation of smaller parties, which limits governability and breeds clientelism and corruption. Another irony is that Kassab and the PSD’s (deliberately) eye-catching chief demand is for a constituent assembly to reform the 1998 constitution, so as to “re-connect” political parties with the electorate.
Political reform is a recurring theme in Brazil. Without fail, every presidential candidate promises it on the campaign trail and then makes a token stab at it in their first year, before quietly dropping it in the face of congressional opposition (and in favour of more pressing issues). The latest effort comes at an interesting juncture. For the first time in many years, there is some genuine public interest in political reform. In the face of yet another slew of serious ministerial graft scandals this year, voters finally seem a trifle fed up with the status quo, and want more transparency and accountability in government.
Although polls indicate that President Rousseff has gained in public popularity on the back of her ‘zero-tolerance’ stance against corruption, her hand has been forced to a large degree by the watchful conservative press, and although it appeals to the president’s pragmatic side, her commitment to a proper ‘faxina’ (clean-up), which necessarily involves some type of political reform, remains to be seen, given the inherent risk to governability.
The stance of her (now 14-party) coalition is pretty unequivocal, however. On 5 October, a special congressional commission on political reform postponed until 20 October a vote on a proposal drafted by deputy Henrique Fontana of the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), pending amendments. The proposal contemplates public-only campaign financing and a mixed proportional voting system for parliament (with 50% of deputies elected via pre-ranked party lists and the other half individually, via simple majority). The current open list PR system has thrown up problems, including the issue of so-called ‘vote pullers’ - whereby ‘celebrity’ candidates can piggyback fellow candidates or even entire small parties into congress. It also discourages party loyalty.
The PT and its main coalition partner Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB) are at odds over the solution – the PT defends a closed party list system, while the PMDB wants a single non-transferable (i.e. first-past-the-post) vote for the legislative elections. Fontana’s compromise solution has flopped. Led by the PMDB, the other coalition partners argue that it would favour the PT. “As it is, this bill will be only be voted on 24 December, in Santa’s sleigh,” quipped PMDB deputy Eduardo Cunho.
Indeed sceptics suggested that Lula’s failure this week to turn up as promised in Brasília to back the Fontana proposal (he said he was tired after a recent foreign trip) was evidence that he is not all that interested in any reform that might threaten his carefully crafted web of alliances ahead of 2014, when he just might seek to return to office. Other no-shows included the state governors of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos (Partido Socialista Brasileiro); Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral (PMDB); and Rio Grande do Sul, Tarso Genro (PT). Notably, however, Lula has previously also mooted the idea of tackling political reform via a constituent assembly, in order to bypass “hidden enemies” in congress.
The PSD
Kassab quit the PSDB-allied Democratas in April to form the PSD. With an estimated 60 deputies and at least two senators (so far), the PSD will leapfrog the PSDB to become the third largest group in the federal parliament. By virtue of its novice status, the PSD is able to attract new members from across the floor without defectors losing their mandates. It also has two state governors (Amazonas and Rio Grande do Norte) and six vice-governors. Kassab defines the PSD as neither left- nor right-wing and insists that it wants neither official positions nor financial favours in return for its support of the ruling coalition.
Critics including the leading conservative daily, Folha de São Paulo, immediately slammed the PSD as nothing more than “an ambulance party”, picking up opposition discontents who want to inveigle themselves with the government. Its rival O Estado de São Paulo was equally sniffy. In a 1 October editorial it accused Kassab of plagiarising from the former president Getúlio Vargas. In 1945, Vargas created two parties, the centre-right Partido Social Democrático (PSD), and the centre-left Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB), in order to keep intact the political machine created under his prior Novo Estado dictatorship (1937-1945). O Estado dismissed Kassab’s call for a constituent assembly as dissembling. “In pretending to be everything to everyone, it has nothing new to offer,” it intoned.
Rousseff has welcomed the PSD to the fold for tactical reasons, not least the PT’s long-held ambition to make inroads into the PSDB heartlands of São Paulo, the country’s largest electoral district. Potentially, Kassab and the PSD could also prove a useful counterweight to the PMDB. Given the internal strife in the PSDB, Rousseff is well aware that the main threats to her lie close to home. As we went to press, two senior PMDB officials in São Paulo, Kassab’s deputy Alda Marca Antônio and Councillor Antônio Goulart, defected to the PSD in order to avoid having to support the PMDB’s mayoral candidate in 2012.
- Kassab’s two-timing
Gilberto Kassab was a protégé of Jose Serra, the PSDB baron of São Paulo. After two failed presidential bids, Serra’s star is on the wane. He may run for mayor of São Paulo in 2012 (he has previously been mayor and state governor). This would suit his PSDB rival, Aécio Neves, who this week strongly hinted at his presidential ambitions in 2014. Serra is nominally backed in his mayoral bid by Kassab, the idea being that Kassab would run for the governor’s seat in 2014 (potentially against the PSDB incumbent, Geraldo Alckmin). By allying himself with the PT-led government, Kassab is positioning himself to have two options come 2014. He has already intimated that President Rousseff will be his choice.
