Jarbas obtains injunction against Jucá and FBC and maintains control of the PMDB in Pernambuco.

Pernambuco 247 - Federal deputy Jarbas Vasconcelos (PMDB-PE) managed, through a lawsuit in the Federal Court, to suspend the dismantling process of the party in Pernambuco promoted by the party president, Senator Romero Jucá, who wants the state leadership of the party to be in the hands of Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho, recently affiliated with the party. 

The preliminary injunction, issued by Judge Cleber de Andrade Pinto of the 16th Civil Court of Brasília, also maintained the vice-governor, Raul Henry – who is Jarbas's political protégé – in charge of the party. According to the magistrate, the dissolution of the state directory must be done by the party's National Council and not by the National Executive. “The path of judicialization was what we found to prevent the illegality that was underway. Dissolving a legally constituted directory like that of Pernambuco harks back to the most difficult times in this country,” said Jarbas in a statement. 

The PMDB is currently the largest party in Governor Paulo Câmara's (PSB) base. The dissolution of the state directory aims to further weaken the socialist government, placing the PMDB in the opposition and elevating Fernando Bezerra Coelho, or his son, federal deputy and Minister of Mines and Energy, Fernando Bezerra Coelho Filho, to a prominent position to contest the Palácio do Campo das Princesas (Governor's Palace) in 2018.

Also in a statement, the national PMDB said it will appeal to the courts to uphold the decision that dissolved the state directory. “As with the decision of the Pernambuco court, the PMDB (national) will take the necessary measures, emphasizing, once again, that the National Executive Committee is the competent party body to analyze the request for dissolution. There was an amendment to the Statute suppressing item II of article 73, which caused the other items of that article to be renumbered. Article 76, which deals with the competence of the National Executive Committee, provides, in item XI, that some competences of the National Council can be exercised by the Executive Committee, specifically those of items I, III, VI and VII of article 73. Among them, therefore, is the power to decide on requests for dissolution, which is included in the current item III,” the party informed.