Brazil’s elections have shifted Congress further right, regardless of who wins the presidential runoff between Flávio Bolsonaro and incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva SAO PAULO -- Brazil’s elections have shifted its Congress to the right regardless of who wins Sunday's presidential runoff between Flávio Bolsonaro and incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Many lawmakers taking office in February 2027 are keen to reshape the nation’s Supreme Court, economy, human rights protections and environmental policies. If right-wing and centrist lawmakers unite, they will command a simple majority in the 513-seat lower house and could even assemble a supermajority in a broad alliance to change Brazil’s constitution.
A similar dynamic is expected in the Senate. Analysts and politicians agree there could be long-lasting impacts in Brazil and in Latin America. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party won an additional 23 seats in the lower house and nearly doubled its Senate seats, mostly at the expense of centrist parties.
Lula's Workers' Party held onto roughly the same number of seats. Those figures could still change as some lawmakers change parties after their election. Here is a look at how this right-leaning Congress could reshape Brazil’s agenda.
Bolsonaro’s congressional allies want, above all, to impeach Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who chaired the investigation that put former President Jair Bolsonaro in prison for his attempted coup. They need 54 votes in the Senate, and many of the future members ran precisely on an impeach de Moraes platform. Brazil’s next president will be able to appoint at least three new justices.
Right-leaning lawmakers have also expressed their wish to curtail individual rulings from Supreme Court justices, who have often suspended laws, issued sweeping injunctions and made high-impact orders without the authorization of the full bench. Some lawmakers also want to discuss term limits for justices. Even leftist lawmakers support to some of those ideas in the wake of a corruption scandal that ensnared the court.
Many elected lawmakers support Bolsonaro’s hard-line proposals for public security. They want to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years of age. Several also support chemical castration as a penalty for convicted rapists and pedophiles.
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