President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government is trying to rebuild its relationship with Senate President Davi Alcolumbre after a sequence of defeats exposed the Planalto Palace's dependence on Congress ahead of the 2026 election.
The immediate test is a constitutional amendment that would end Brazil's so-called 6x1 work schedule, six days of work followed by one day off, and reduce the standard weekly workload from 44 to 40 hours without cutting pay. The proposal passed the Chamber of Deputies by large margins on May 27 and now awaits two rounds of voting in the Senate.
A Fragile Reopening
Jose Guimaraes, Lula's minister for institutional relations, told O Globo and Poder360 that Alcolumbre wants to "sit down with the president and rebuild the relationship" and "recompose" ties. Guimaraes said he speaks with the Senate chief almost every day and does not expect him to block the workweek proposal, which the government hopes to approve before October 2026.
Folha de S.Paulo reported earlier in May that Lula had instructed aides to resume dialogue with Alcolumbre after the Senate rejected Jorge Messias, Lula's attorney general, for a seat on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). The defeat was historic: Messias fell short by 42 votes to 34, with one abstention, below the 41 votes needed for confirmation in the 81-seat chamber. According to G1 and BBC News Brasil, it was the first rejection of a presidential nominee to Brazil's top court since the 19th century.
Alcolumbre, from Uniao Brasil in the northern state of Amapa, publicly denied working against Messias, but Folha reported that government officials believe he helped deny Lula the votes. BBC News Brasil, citing political scientist Creomar de Souza, described the episode as both a victory for Alcolumbre and a sign of the president's difficulty in building a disciplined congressional majority in his third term.
Why the Workweek Vote Matters
For the government, the 6x1 amendment is both a policy goal and a measure of whether the Senate relationship can be repaired. A successful vote would give Lula a popular labor-rights win to carry into the campaign and signal that Alcolumbre is willing to cooperate after the Messias defeat. A failure, or prolonged delay, would confirm the Planalto's weakness in the Senate at the start of an election year. The political and procedural obstacles remain steep, but the government is betting that the Senate chief's stated wish to rebuild ties will translate into movement on its priority agenda.