Acting president says Brazil is relieving the tension

After making a statement today (Jul. 14) on the vote that saw Rodrigo Maia, of the Democrats party, elected Brazil's new lower house speaker, acting President Michel Temer said that the country is “relieving the tension.”

Maia was elected with 282 votes in the small hours of Thursday, and will head the Chamber of Deputies up to February next year. He won the second round of the vote against Rogério Rosso, who received 170 votes.

“Before the election, the two hopefuls hugged each other to express the calmness crucial to good legislative undertakings. At that moment, I felt that Brazil was relieving the tension,” Temer said in a statement made after a ceremony held at the Palácio presidential palace.

If Brazil succeeds in loosening the tension in the Executive branch, Temer argues, “both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will loosen their the tension, and we'll achieve a considerable higher level of harmony, which should come in handy to the Executive.”

In Temer's view, the government needs “substantial support from the Legislative.” “It's hard to govern when the Legislative runs counter to the Executive,” he pointed out.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira