On Sunday evening it became clear that His Royal Highness Prince Luiz Philippe of Brazil was officially elected as new congress-representative from the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil. The Brazilian royal received more than 120.000 votes and therefore become one of the 70 congress representatives who was elevated in this region. Prince Luiz Philippe will represent his home state in the 56th legislature that will begin in February 2019.
Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Bragança, or as he is more commonly known as, Prince Luiz Philippe, and by media often referred to as just “O Príncipe” (the Prince). 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. More importantly, Orleans e Bragança is considered a leading contender for Minister of Foreign Relations, Brazil’s top diplomatic post, in a Bolsonaro-led government.
The PSL-party is a Brazilian national-conservative party, and their president-candidate was Jair Bolsonaro who won the first round in the national election yesterday. The Prince has expressed his support for his party-leader, and to The Observer he said: “The administration of Jair Bolsonaro will be first and foremost about protecting the strategic interests of Brazil and the Brazilian people at home and abroad”.
His Royal Highness also 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 general elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the President, Vice President and the National Congress. Elections for state Governors and Vice Governors, state Legislative Assemblies and Federal District Legislative Chamber were also held at the same time.
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 Maria Rainier de Orléans and Bragança and Wittelsbach and Princess Ana Maria Barbará. Luiz Philippe is married and the father of a son. The Prince has an impressive education. He studied business administration at the FAAP-University before completing a Master’s Degree in political science from Stanford University in the United States in 1993 and a Master’s in Business Administration with an MBA from the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires in France in 1997.
In Brazil he is mostly known to be one of the leaders and co-founder of the liberal movement Acorda Brazil, that was favourable to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. It is his nephew, Prince D. Luis Gastão de Orléans and Bragança, who is one of the current head 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.
