Who are the candidates for the presidency of the Senate and its supporters

Four senators will run for the Senate Presidency on Saturday 1st, in the election for the 2025-2026 biennium: David Alcolumbre (Brazil-AP Union), Marcos Pontes (PL-SP), Marcos do Val (Somos) and Eduardo Girão (New-CE).

Favorite to succeed Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), alcolumbre, even before being elected, already acts as president of the Senate and took over the negotiations of the Lula government’s fiscal package.

To attract the support of the government, which hopes to approve the spending plan of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, Alcolumbre promises to act to speed the ruling guidelines and calm the spirits in Parliament.

David Alcolumbre (Union-AP)

Favorite to win the Senate Presidency, Alcolumbre was president of the Senate between 2019 and 2021 and is the favorite to return to the chair in the succession of Pacheco, his political godson. In recent years, the parliamentarian has kept his influence intact by charging the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), the most important collegiate of the House, through which the processing of virtually all important projects begins. He also detained control of the transfer of amendments, which guarantees political influence.

Without higher education, the senator has a discreet trajectory in the legislature. He was elected councilor in Macapá in the 2000 elections. It was his first elective position. Four years later, he became a federal deputy for his state and stayed in the House until 2014, when he won a place in the Senate.

Alcolumbre has the support of the PT in the Senate, party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as well as União Brasil, party of Amapá senator, PL, former President Jair Bolsonaro PP, PSB and PDT and MDB.

As Estadão showed, Alcolumbre promised to ensure faster proceedings of the “democracy package”, an initiative that encompasses bills as one prohibiting military personnel to assume the Ministry of Defense in exchange for MDB support.

Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE)

Bolsonaro’s ally, Eduardo Girão formalized his candidacy for the Senate. Elected in 2018 by Pros (who merged with solidarity) with 1,325,786 votes, the senator has been in the new since 2023 and is the only parliamentary of the party at home.

Last year, Girão tried to elect Mayor of Fortaleza, but was fifth in the dispute with 14,878 votes. Entrepreneur of the branches of hotel, transportation of values ​​and private security, told the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to have a property of R $ 48.1 million when participating in the municipal election.

In six years as a senator, Girão was the only author of 81 projects. Of the total, two became laws. One of them created National Spiritism Day, celebrated on April 18, and another made available lines of credit to professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Marcos do Val (Somos)

Marcos do Val was elected in 2018, in the wake of Bolsonarism, with 863,359 votes, by the PPS (current citizenship). A year later, he left the acronym and joined Somos. Before joining politics, he provided mandatory military service and, according to his Senate biography, offered personal defense classes to international police agents such as American Swat, FBI and Navy Seals.

The senator has already been involved in friction with the Bolsonaro clan by stating in February 2023 that he suffered coercion from the former president to participate in an attempted coup. He denied the story the same day, but time later was the target of a Federal Police (PF) operation.

Last year, Val had his passport seized, blocked bank accounts and social networks suspended by order of the Supreme Court Minister (STF) Alexandre de Moraes. The measures were imposed within an investigation that investigates attacks from Bolsonarist bloggers to PF agents.

In the period in the Senate, he was the only author of 112 bills, which remain in process. We could not support his candidacy for the presidency of the Senate.

Marcos Pontes (PL-SP)

Senator Marcos Pontes officialized the candidacy for the presidency of the Senate. The PL, however, announced support for alcohumbre, in an agreement to ensure space at the board of the house. Former President Jair Bolsonaro called the attitude “unfortunate,” and Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI) said his colleague will only have “his own vote.”

He faces difficulties in consolidating alliances and admitted to being an “unlikely winner.”

In 2006, Pontes was nationally known for becoming the first Brazilian astronaut to go to space. He joined politics in 2019 when he was appointed Minister of Science and Technology by Bolsonaro. In the last Senate elections, he won the only chair of the state of Sao Paulo by obtaining 10,714,913 votes.

In two years in the Senate, he presented 41 bills, which are being processed. Among the proposals, it is seeking to revoke crimes of size and illegal possession of the firearm.