Who is Arthur Lira?
Arthur Lira, born in Maceió in 1969, served on the Maceió city council and the Alagoas assembly before entering the Chamber of Deputies in 2011. He led the Chamber from February 2021 to February 2025 and in 2025 reported the bill widening the income tax exemption to R$5,000. Running for the Senate for the first time, he won on 4 October 2026, against Renan Calheiros of the MDB, with 988,703 votes, or 28.87 percent of valid votes. His term starts on 1 February 2027. He supported Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 and has also kept relations with Lula, and Flávio Bolsonaro endorsed his Senate bid in August 2026.
Previously: President of the Chamber of Deputies (February 2021 to February 2025) · Rapporteur of the income tax exemption bill (2025) · Federal deputy for Alagoas (since 2011)
Documented positions
- In July 2025, presenting his report, he called the income tax bill an embryo of a tax reform on income.Source: dgabc.com.br
- He said retroactive application of the minimum tax on dividends would cause tremendous legal insecurity, and that his report let profits taxed up to 2025 be distributed without new tax.Source: dgabc.com.br
- In September 2025 he backed taxing high incomes to fund the exemption, stressed fiscal neutrality and said the bill should not be designed to raise revenue.Source: tnh1.com.br
- In December 2022 he backed a resolution setting new limits on rapporteur amendments, days before the Supreme Court ruled that the secret budget was unconstitutional by 6 votes to 5.Source: infomoney.com.br
- In February 2026 he said he had backed Jair Bolsonaro in the last election but had kept good relations with Lula, and had not said whom he would back in 2026.Source: cnnbrasil.com.br
- In August 2026 Flávio Bolsonaro named him among 47 Senate candidates he backed, after the PL's Alagoas candidate became his running mate.Source: dgabc.com.br
- After winning he said he would work with governor-elect JHC and other state leaders to build a majority through dialogue.Source: tnh1.com.br
Record
As Speaker he controlled the Chamber's agenda for four years, and the rapporteur-amendment system that grew under him was struck down by the Supreme Court in December 2022. In 2025 he reported the bill widening the income tax exemption. On his legal history, a profile in O Povo says improbity convictions from Operation Taturana were annulled by the Superior Court of Justice on procedural grounds, Lava Jato complaints were rejected by the Supreme Court, and he was acquitted in 2015 of a domestic violence charge for insufficient evidence.
Supporters credit his command of the Chamber and the income tax exemption. Critics saw the December 2022 resolution as an attempt to undercut the Supreme Court.
