On Friday afternoon, His Royal Highness Prince Luiz Philippe of Orléans-Braganza was inaugurated in Brasília for his first term as Congress-representative in the Brazilian parliament. During the inauguration, the Prince of the former Empire of Brazil wore the Imperial Order of Christ that used to belong to Emperor Pedro II Brazil.
Prince Luiz Philippe was officially elected as new congress-representative for the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil last year. The Brazilian royal received more than 120,000 votes and therefore become one of the 70 congress representatives.
Prince Luiz Philippe is often referred to as just “O Príncipe” (the Prince) by the media. Luiz Philippe is a member of Bolsonaro’s PSL party and was considered as one of the favourites in his own race for Congress, representing the State of São Paulo. Therefore, there was no surprise that he was elected in October 2018. The PSL-party is a Brazilian national-conservative party, and their president-candidate was Jair Bolsonaro who won the presidential election last year.
His Royal Highness has previously said: “Nonetheless, we feel that the United States is a natural strategic partner in many ways—something that has eroded over the past decade under Brazil’s Workers’ Party. Like President Trump, we believe in fair and balanced bilateral trade, investing in defence, and keeping strong borders”.
The Brazilian Imperial Family is a branch of the Portuguese Royal House of Braganza that ruled the Empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1889. The members of the family are dynastic descendants of Emperor Pedro I. With the proclamation of the republic in 1889, and the consequent extinction of the Brazilian Empire on that date, the title of Head of the Imperial House of Brazil was created for the apparent heir to the defunct throne.
Prince Luiz Philippe was born in 1969. He is the son of Prince Eudes of Orléans-Braganza and Ana Maria de Cerqueira César Moraes de Barros. It is his nephew, Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza, who is one of the disputed heads of the Imperial House of Brazil. Among one of his popular proposals is the creation of a fourth national authority equal to the current head of state. The fourth power will, according to the Prince, have a veto equal to the parliament. Many believe that this may be the first step in the direction to re-establish a version of a monarchy in Brazil.
