National Congress (Brazil)

Senate Chamber

Chamber of Deputies plenary hall

Congress building

The National Congress (Portuguese Congresso Nacional ) is Brazil's highest legislative body and consists of two chambers :

• The Federal Senate (Senado Federal) has 81 seats: three for each of the 26 states of Brazil and the Federal District . The senators are elected for eight years by majority vote. The election in the states is staggered, so that on a certain election date only two-thirds of the senators are elected, while the remaining third is then elected four years later.

• 513 members are elected to the Chamber of Deputies (Câmara dos Deputados) . A term of office is four years. The elections are based on a complex system of proportional representation in which votes for a party and votes for candidates from that party are added together. From this the seats to which this party is entitled are determined and the candidates with the most individual votes come to the Chamber of Deputies. The seats are distributed in proportion to the population of the states, but each state has a minimum of eight seats and a maximum of 70 seats. The system is thus weighted in favor of the smaller states.

The National Congress is considered to be fragmented. Since the elections in October 2014 , 28 different parties have been represented in the Senate and the House of Representatives, 11 of which form a loose government coalition. Since it is not uncommon for politicians to change parties in Brazil, the number of seats per party changes quite frequently.

Congress building

In Rio de Janeiro , the Senate and House of Representatives were last housed in the Palácio Tiradentes , the current seat of the legislative assembly of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Today's congress building, which has housed both chambers since 1960, was built between 1958 and 1960. It is located at the eastern end of the central Eixo Monumental of Brasília and forms its optical conclusion. Like many other public buildings in the city, this building complex was designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer . In front of the building with the plenary halls, there is a large, sloping lawn, which is a popular place for demonstrations.

The plenary halls of both chambers are located in the low-rise building across the Eixo Monumental. That of the Senate under the concave dome on the left-hand side when looking towards the city center, that of the House of Representatives on the right under the convex shell. The representative offices are located in two high-rise buildings behind the low-rise building. In order to keep the building complex optically in balance, they are offset off-center to the left, in the direction of the smaller dome compared to the shell. The building complex also includes other buildings in the area, some of which are connected by underground tunnels.

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  Location in the government district

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  Congress building from the direction of the city center

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  Congress building from the direction of the three powers square

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  Demonstration in March 2016

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  Artificial lake in front of the congress building

Web links

Commons : National Congress (Brazil)  - Collection of images

• Senado Federal Official website of the Senate (port.)
• Câmara dos Deputados Official website of the House of Representatives (port.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brazil. In: www.auswaertiges-amt.de. Federal Foreign Office , September 2016, accessed December 20, 2016 . 

Coordinates: 15 ° 47 ′ 58.8 ″  S , 47 ° 51 ′ 51.1 ″  W.