A leading centrist party is threatening to leave Brazil's governing coalition next week in a move that could jeopardize the president's reforms in Congress and pressure him to give it more Cabinet posts. The Brazilian Democratic Party Movement -- Brazil's largest in terms of members -- is the second-largest in the lower house of Congress and has always been deeply split in its support for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government. A spokesman for party leader Michel Temer said on Friday about 400 of the 708 delegates would vote for pulling out of the center-left government at the party's Dec. 12 convention. A simple majority will decide. "The pro-government wing is going to have to go to great efforts to please President Lula and avoid the split," said Geddel Vieira Lima, a lawmaker from the anti-government faction. "I don't see us remaining in the government base because it is not the will of the party." The long-awaited decision has contributed to virtually nothing being voted in the lower house of Congress -- where the party's anti-government faction represents nearly half its lawmakers -- since October local elections. --More 1945 Local Time 1645 GMT
