By Paulo Trevisani And Djania Savoldi
BRASÍLIA--Brazil's newly elected Congress was sworn in Sunday
and gave a black eye to President Dilma Rousseff, electing a
lawmaker largely seen as opposed to her administration for a key
position in the legislative body.
Federal Deputy Eduardo Cunha, from the Brazilian Democratic
Movement Party, or PMDB, was elected with 267 votes to be the
speaker of the 513-member Chamber of Deputies for the next two
years. He beat Arlindo Chinaglia, from Ms. Rousseff's Workers'
Party, or PT.
Political observers say Mr. Cunha is likely to make it harder
for Ms. Rousseff to push her new agenda of economic belt-tightening
through Congress.
The position also holds sway over congressional probes likely to
be created to investigate an embezzlement scandal involving
Brazil's state-controlled energy company Petróleo Brasileiro SA.,
or Petrobras. The case threatens to engulf Ms. Rousseff's Workers'
Party, or PT.
Mr. Cunha's victory "makes it harder [for the government] to
adopt certain measures. The cost of negotiation gets higher," said
political scientist Paulo Carlos Calmon, from the University of
Brasília.
The speaker can dictate how fast bills get voted on, and
determine how much space opposition lawmakers will have at
commissions specially created to make investigations.
All that said, the government still holds a large majority in
both houses, and Mr. Cunha's PMDB is the party of Brazilian Vice
President Michel Temer and a top ally of the PT.
The PT tried to strike a deal with Mr. Cunha's camp to have the
two parties take two-year turns leading the Chamber of Deputies,
Minister of Institutional Relations Pepe Vargas, who is the
president's liaison with Congress, told reporters Sunday after the
vote.
A spokesman for Mr. Cunha said the deal was rejected because Mr.
Cunha was certain he would win.
Mr. Cunha's election is the closest thing to a victory the
minority opposition could have hoped for, since he has a track
record of opposing bills dear to the government, and has sought to
portray himself as independent from the Rousseff
administration.
"We never spoke of [making] opposition, but of keeping the House
independent", Mr. Cunha said in a speech before the vote.
His victory comes as Ms. Rousseff is hard-pressed to cut
government spending and increase taxes. Brazil's once-highflying
economy has been bogged down by high inflation and low economic
growth, combined with a widening budget deficit that reached 6.7%
of gross domestic product in 2014.
In December, for instance, a presidential decree made it harder
for workers to get jobless-insurance payments, potentially saving
Treasury funds. The new Congress soon will vote on whether that
measure can stay in place, and local media reports have said
lawmakers likely will change the measure to reduce workers'
losses--and Treasury savings.
The economic hardships have cast a pall over Ms. Rousseff's
second term. She was re-elected in the October general elections by
a thin margin that emboldened the opposition. A more belligerent
Congress could make it harder for the president to pass needed
overhauls to fix the economy, analysts say.
The legislature was elected in October and sworn in Sunday,
right before the speaker vote. Analysts say the government has more
influence over the 81 senators, but the lower house has grown more
independent in the past few years.
Sen. Renan Calheiros was elected as speaker of the Senate. He is
a longtime loyalist to Ms. Rousseff and to her predecessor and
mentor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The speaker of the Senate also presides over matters that
require joint decisions by both chambers, which means Mr. Cunha's
powers often will be curbed by hierarchy.
Still, he has enough power to be a thorn in the side for the
administration.
Mr. Cunha "isn't easy," said a high-level aide to Ms.
Rousseff.
Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com
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