Weekly Report - 09 April 2026 (WR-26-14)

From 5 March to 3 April, more than a fifth of Brazil’s federal deputies changed parties, reshaping congress, with conservative parties the principal beneficiaries. According to Brazil’s electoral rules, a federal deputy can normally change party only if they provide a ‘just cause’ for the switch, such as serious personal discrimination or if the party makes a substantial deviation from its declared political programme. But this roughly one-month window is a special period for deputies in the final year of their congressional term to change party affiliation without the need to declare a just cause, allowing them to forge new alliances ahead of the general elections in October.