Severino Cavalcanti

Severino José Cavalcanti Ferreira (born December 18, 1930) is a Brazilian politician, born in João Alfredo, Pernambuco. He is currently a member of the Progressive Party, despite having changed parties eight times in his career. He was the mayor of João Alfredo, a state deputy, has been a federal deputy since 1995.

In 2005, he ran for the presidency of Brazilian chamber of deputies, thinking that the official candidate of the Lula government, Luís Eduardo Greenhalgh, would win. However, because of the internal crisis of the government at the time, Cavalcanti was able to take the post.

Many of his positions are considered rather conservative. He is against abortion and homosexuality, especially public display of homosexual affection. However, despite his conservative positions, he used his position to resist certain movements against Lula and his government during the Mensalão scandal.

However, he is currently being accused of involvement in the Mensalinho scandal, a supposed corruption scheme involving kickbacks from a restaurant operating in the Congressional office building.

On September 21, 2005, he resigned from his position as federal deputy because of the scandal, and his position as President of the House was taken over provisionally by the Vice-President of the House José Thomaz Nonô.