A lesson in parliament

Without going into the merits of the provisional measure on ports, which is controversial by nature, it served to reveal to the country who the true allies of the Dilma Rousseff government are.

Several parliamentarians stood out throughout the battle, but none were as decisive as the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB-RN). A man who was vilified by the press, sabotaged by factions within the PT, and questioned by the Planalto Palace itself, before his election to lead the house.

Leading a historic marathon that consumed two sessions in 41 hours of voting, stretching through two nights, Alves showed the country that his 42 years in parliament, in 11 consecutive terms as a federal deputy, were not in vain. Today, there is no one who knows the House as well as he and his right-hand man, Mozart Vianna. A duo that knows the minutiae of the rules by heart and leads the Chamber with respect for the rights of minorities, but without failing to exercise all prerogatives to ensure the will of the majority prevails.

The historic session, watched by thousands of Brazilians, was a lesson in parliamentary conduct, in which the opposition exercised its legitimate right to obstruct voting, pushing the deputies to the brink of human exhaustion. Patient, persevering, and persistent, Henrique Eduardo Alves did not silence any parliamentarian, acknowledged any errors, and set a public example of civility.

The Dilma government owes him much more than gratitude. It owes him the belated recognition that Brazil now has a Speaker of the House worthy of the office he holds and, above all, a true ally in an environment marked by betrayals and disloyalty.