From Situation to opposition: the welfare reform of the Lula’s government from the perspective of the PSDB deputies

With the defeat in the 2002 elections, the PSDB was characterized as the "strong opposition" to the government of the PT. He reached the command of the Executive in 2003, implemented a reform in Social Security, thus constituting the first time the opposition PSDB. Thus, the objective of this work is to understand the discursive behavior of federal PSDB deputies, held during the sessions of the Great Expedient of the Federal Chamber, when dealing with this reform. For the analysis, the theoretical and methodological aspects of discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe were used. It was possible to identify that the new political context has changed the identities of PT and PSDB, but kept the antagonistic relationship. Moreover, because it is the first time opposition, the PSDB did not build hegemonic discourse against the reform, but critical of its formatting