Chamber creates obstacle for Kassab's project.

Authored by the leader of the DEM party, Representative Mendonça Filho (PE), the approved text makes the merger of political parties more difficult, by admitting that the merger can only occur after five years of obtaining the definitive registration of the party with the Superior Electoral Court; according to him, the future law will end the "party spree"; "there is an industry of party creation in Brazil"; Minister Gilberto Kassab (Cities) intended to create a new party and form one of the largest blocs in the House, in support of the government.

February 26, 2015, 08:48 PMUpdated July 05, 2018, 06:42 pm

Authored by the leader of the DEM party, Representative Mendonça Filho (PE), the approved text makes it more difficult for political parties to merge, by admitting that a merger can only occur after five years of obtaining the party's definitive registration with the Superior Electoral Court; according to him, the future law will end the "party spree"; "there is an industry of party creation in Brazil"; Minister Gilberto Kassab (Cities) intended to create a new party and form one of the largest blocs in the House, in support of the government (Photo: Roberta Namour)

Iolando Lourenço - Reporter for Agência Brasil - The Chamber approved last night (25) a bill that makes it more difficult to merge political parties, by admitting that the merger can only occur after five years of obtaining the definitive registration of the party in the Superior Electoral Court. Authored by the leader of the DEM, deputy Mendonça Filho (PE), the bill will now be analyzed by the Senate.

The rapporteur for the matter, Deputy Sandro Alex (PPS-PR), included a provision in the approved text to guarantee that a new party, resulting from a merger, will not receive the airtime for political advertising on radio and television, nor the resources from the Party Fund, allocated to deputies who have changed parties.

The text that will be analyzed by the Senate also creates a kind of 30-day window for a politician with a mandate to migrate to a new party resulting from the merger of other parties.

Several parliamentarians criticized the proposed changes, which make it more difficult for parties to merge, and even requested more time to analyze the matter, which was ultimately approved by the plenary. However, the vast majority defended and voted in favor of the text's approval. Deputy Mendonça Filho said that the future law will restrict party mergers and end the "party spree." According to him, there is an industry of party creation in Brazil.

For the leader of the PHS, Deputy Marcelo Aro (MG), opposing the project is to defend the "indefensible." "It makes no sense to create a party to merge and increase an already existing parliamentary group." With the existing facilities, four parties were created in the last legislature alone: PSD, Solidariedade, PROS, and PEN.