By Carol Amancio
Brazil's Republicanos party may return to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government, and the prospect has gone down badly inside the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Pastors tied to the party are already talking about leaving it and moving to the Liberal Party (PL), the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to Brazilian reports.
Republicanos president Marcos Pereira, a federal deputy from São Paulo state, is expected to talk soon with emissaries of Lula, a member of the Workers' Party (PT), about the matter. The move set off alarms among the pastors and opened a crisis that nobody in the party expected so soon.
Pastors say the party is being "handed over" to Lula
Members of the church say they see Pereira as getting too close to the PT leader. Conservative pastors judge that the party chief is too near Lula. One pastor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party's president wants to "hand over" the party to the PT leader.
A divided party and a ministry in play
Like other parties of the centrão, the large bloc of center-right parties that often trade congressional support for government posts, Republicanos has wings split between backing and rejecting the Lula government. Until April of this year, the party held a ministry: Silvio Costa Filho headed the Ministry of Ports and Airports. Re-elected as a federal deputy from Pernambuco state, he is mentioned as a candidate to return to the government.
Why the Universal Church matters to Republicanos
Pereira began his career tied to the Universal Church, a major Brazilian Pentecostal denomination, but has distanced himself from it in recent years. Within the religious group, there is resentment that few federal deputies linked to the institution were elected in 2026. For internal critics, the church, which was the origin of the party's creation 20 years ago, is being pushed aside.
Pereira's response
Asked about the pastors' reaction, Pereira replied: "I find this supposed discomfort very strange. No one is obliged to remain affiliated with any party. The party-switching window exists for when one wants to change."
In practice, those who disagree can look for another party, and the window, the period when lawmakers may switch parties, exists precisely for that purpose.
Why it matters
Republicanos is one of the parties that Lula would need to shore up support in Congress, while the PL is the main party of the Brazilian right. A possible exodus of church-linked pastors toward the PL would show that rapprochement with the PT is not a consensus, even among the people who built the party. The internal pressure suggests that a return to the government is far from settled inside Republicanos.
