Politics: Lower House Speaker Race Hots Up

Lawmaker Baleia Rossi should officially launch his candidacy for lower house speaker tomorrow according to local press. Having secured the support from the Worker's Party, he now has support from 11 different parties. His strategy will be to mirror Bolsonaro's candidate. Arthur Lira, and travel around the country campaigning for votes.

According to the XP Investimentos' political analysis team, Rossi's group brings together 269 deputies, more than the 257 needed to elect a candidate in the first round. However, defections are expected from both sides, which makes the dispute, made by secret ballot, "quite fierce and unpredictable," XP says in a report.

*Reform Challenge – The new speaker will face sizeable challenges of resuming reforms and containing the pressure on the spending cap. Rossi is the author of one of the tax overhaul proposals, while Arthur Lira defended the approval of the reforms on social media.

*Senate Race – According to O Globo, Senator Rodrigo Pacheco has started campaigning for Senate Presidency. He is supported by outgoing Senate President Alcolumbre, as well as outgoing lower house Speaker Maia. All three represent the DEM party.