President Temer asks new Senate president to support govt reforms

Brazil's President Michel Temer congratulated Senator Eunício Oliveira on his election as president of the Senate by 61-10, with 10 blank votes.

Presidential Spokesman Alexandre Parola said Temer hopes to work with Oliveira, a fellow member of the president's PMDB party, and the other lawmakers from the governing coalition, on a reform agenda which, he says, is putting Brazil back on track towards growth and prosperity.

Support for reforms

In his first interview as president of the Senate, Eunício Oliveira said his relationship with the Executive government will be one of “independence, harmony, and dialogue,” but made a commitment to the reform agenda proposed by the government. According to him, the Senate agenda will be decided in collaboration with party leaders.

He noted that the pension reform—“like certain archaic laws that need to be modernized”—will be discussed and voted on in Senate.

As for the labor reform, he said it will be included on the agenda when it is sent to the house, but only after discussions with employers' associations and workers' unions.

He declined to comment on a recent ruling by the Chief Supreme Court Justice Cármen Lúcia to retain the classified status of plea bargaining testimonies heard from executives of Odebrecht construction company in the “Car Wash” corruption scandal. One of the whistleblowers confessed to paying $1.59 million into the senator's campaign when he ran for governor of Ceará state in 2014.

“The president of this house will always keep dialogue, but it's not his responsibility to take any actions regarding decisions made by the chief of another branch of government,” he said simply.

Translated by Mayra Borges