Brazil’s Senate is unlikely to complete a vote on a constitutional amendment ending the country’s traditional six-days-on, one-day-off work schedule before the first round of the presidential election on October 4, according to single-source reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.
The delay frustrates President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government, which had hoped to secure approval before campaigning effectively suspends congressional activity. The administration will now try to persuade Senate President Davi Alcolumbre of União Brasil, who represents Amapá state, to schedule the measure before a possible presidential runoff on October 25.
Resistance in the Senate
Government officials publicly maintained that a vote could still take place on Thursday, September 3. José Guimarães, the minister responsible for relations with Congress, said after speaking with Alcolumbre that there was still “an entire night and morning” to convince him.
Behind the scenes, however, government lawmakers acknowledged that the proposal faced little chance of reaching the Senate floor before the first round. Alcolumbre reportedly told officials that opposition senators and part of the centrão—a loose bloc of pragmatic, often centrist or center-right lawmakers—opposed moving ahead at this stage.
The Senate president argues that he has already partly addressed the government’s priorities by sending the amendment to the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ). The committee approved the proposal on Wednesday in a symbolic vote, without recording how each senator voted.
The amendment still requires approval by 49 of the Senate’s 81 members in two separate floor votes. The Senate recorded attendance of more than 70 lawmakers during Wednesday’s debate, but government leaders said that support in the committee did not guarantee the votes needed in plenary.
Election-Year Calculations
Teresa Leitão, the government’s Senate leader and a member of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), said Alcolumbre’s agreement with the administration covered the processing of several government-backed measures, not necessarily a floor vote on the work-schedule amendment.
Among the measures that advanced were a bill on critical minerals, which includes R$5 billion (roughly USD 1 billion, an approximate conversion) in subsidies and creates a council with the power to veto foreign participation, and a public-security constitutional amendment. The Senate also advanced a provisional measure involving an import tax popularly known as the “blusinhas” tax, but its final consideration remains incomplete.
The final week of congressional activity before the election ends Thursday. Friday’s session is expected to be largely empty, meaning proposals not approved by then will likely wait until after the vote.
Despite the setback, Lula’s allies see a possible electoral advantage in a vote close to a runoff. They believe the measure could help the president in a potential contest against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL), who did not comment on the proposal and traveled while the Senate debated it.
Rogério Marinho, Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign coordinator, said the group supports an alternative based on free negotiation between employers and employees over hourly pay. The opposition has pressed to keep the amendment off the agenda before the election, while the government is seeking to preserve its recently repaired relationship with Alcolumbre.