The alliance negotiated by deputy Hugo Motta (Republicans) with the PT of Paraíba to elect his father to the Senate is threatened after disagreements caused by national politics, a situation which has amplified the tension between the President of the Chamber and President Lula (PT) and which tends to worsen as the elections approach.
Since assuming the presidency of the Chamber, Motta has developed a plan to elect his father, the mayor of Patos, Nabor Wanderley (Republicans), as senator on the list of Governor João Azevedo (PSB). They hope to count on the support of Lula, who obtained 66.6% of the votes in Paraíba in 2022, compared to 33.4% for former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
However, Senator Veneziano do Rêgo (MDB-PB) is also seeking Lula’s support to run in the elections and has moved even closer to the Paraíba PT after disagreements between Motta and the party’s leaders at the national level – which even led to the rift between the Speaker of the House and the leader of the PT bench in the House, Lindbergh Farias (RJ).
The previously isolated emedebista allied himself with João Pessoa’s mayor, Cícero Lucena, who joined the MDB with plans to run for government in 2026 and divided Paraíba’s Lulist base. “The local PT knows, like the national PT, that it has two options: between trust and proven betrayal,” says Veneziano, according to whom Lula has already promised to support him.
Azevedo’s group will count him and Nabor as candidates for the Senate – in 2026, two seats will be up for grabs – and Vice Governor Lucas Ribeiro (PP) will run for re-election, having taken power in April with the governor’s resignation.
State politicians claim that the PT is the basis of João Azevedo, with positions in the state government, and that the natural thing would be to repeat the alliance in 2026 and also support Motta’s father. However, its recent disagreements with the Lula government have made this alliance more distant. “This creates difficulties,” says the president of the Paraíba PT, Cida Ramos.
The last divergence, which accentuated the separation of the government from Motta, occurred due to the decision of the President of the Chamber to appoint deputy Guilherme Derrite (PP-SP), then secretary of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), as rapporteur of the anti-faction project, Lula’s bet to gain popularity in the field of public security.
Another point of tension was the social media and street campaigns against Blindagem’s PEC (Constitutional Amendment Bill), which aimed to paralyze criminal proceedings against members of Congress until Congress authorizes their trial. The proposal was ultimately unanimously rejected by the Senate due to popular pressure.
The PT and Lula opposed the text and the Paraíba PT joined the street movements, of which Motta was one of their main targets. Left-linked unions have also deployed billboards against the House speaker across the state.
“The Brazilian people organized (a protest) and it was very strong, it changed the position of Congress. We were in the streets, alongside the people. It was not against the figure of so-and-so, it was to defend political positions,” explains Cida Ramos. The PT president says support for Nabor has not been discussed and the party is debating which party to join after the Lulista base split in the state.
An ally of Lula affirms, with reservations, that the construction of a double platform must be avoided. According to him, this scenario weakens the PT member in the state, preventing him from making gestures more towards one side than the other. He recognizes that a lot of dialogue is necessary to build this agreement, but believes that this subject will still be discussed later.
Motta’s allies said the trend was for him to approach the federal government starting later this year, precisely to gain Lula’s support for his father’s candidacy. The deputy had made gestures at the Palácio do Planalto and participated in official events, but the relationship reached its worst moment with the choice of Derrite.
The distrust between Motta and Palácio do Planalto had lasted for months, since the President of the House proposed a legislative decree to suspend a decree that increased the IOF (financial operations tax) to increase revenues.
In turn, he complained about the network campaigns against the Chamber, mainly with accusations that Congress protects the rich and millionaires, and missed the sanctioning ceremony of the bill that exempted from income tax those who earn up to R$5,000, to show his dissatisfaction with the recent wave of criticism.
The deputy’s interlocutors affirm that, even if Motta wants the support of the President of the Republic for his father’s candidacy, it is Lula who would most need the President of the Chamber to manage the agenda of the plenary and build majorities for his projects.
Motta is said to have already contacted PT members in Brasilia to complain about attacks on the networks, which he claims were organized by Planalto and encouraged by Lindbergh. These criticisms would be reflected in the local situation in Paraíba, increasing the discontent of the President of the House.
When contacted, Motta did not return contact information for the report. His allies say that the support of the PT and Lula for Nabor’s list has not yet been discussed, which should only happen in 2026, and refute that the break with the current leader of the PT in the House has repercussions on the state.
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