Vice-president says PMDB party divide must end

Vice-President Michel Temer said he does not fear a serious rift among members of his Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) in the Chamber of Deputies. PMDB is the country's biggest political party. Temer warned, however, that the pro-government and anti-government divide among the party ranks in the lower house must not continue.

At the end of last year, PMDB members in Congress fell out over who should lead the party bench. Temer, who is the national chairman for the party, told his party colleagues that “the party will not interfere” in the issue because it is “the business of the party bench in the Chamber of Deputies. We have called for complete unity within our bench, it must not be divided between pro-government and anti-government supporters,” he told reporters as he left the office of the Vice-Presidency on Thursday (Jan. 6).

Translated by Mayra Borges