Most voted among Minas Gerais, senator-elect Domingos Sávio (PL), currently a federal deputy, received almost five million votes, 24.21% of the state's voters. Domingos is a native of São Tiago, in Campo das Vertentes de Minas, and had a political career in Divinópolis, in the Center-West.
In an interview with TV Integração, the elected senator spoke about the priorities for his term in the Senate and highlighted Minas' debt and the condition of the state's highways, he also defended changes in the judiciary and public security.
Debt of Minas Gerais
Minas has a debt of almost R$188 billion with the Union, according to the most recent data from the State Department of Finance, accumulated over the years. At the end of 2025, the state joined the Union's Program for Full Payment of State Debts (Propag), which offers debt renegotiation with the Brazilian government.
Sanctioned in May 2026, law 25,871/2026 authorizes the Government of Minas Gerais to transfer or sell 191 state properties to the Union with the aim of amortizing the State's debt under Propag. The Union needs to formally receive the properties. Among them are: Expominas (Belo Horizonte and São João del Rei), Minascentro, the Automóvel Clube de Belo Horizonte, the Grande Hotel de Araxá and the UFMG Knowledge Space.
Domingos Sávio stated that it is necessary to review the payment of the debt, so that it "returns to Minas in the form of investment, automatically", he explained.
The elected senator also defended a review of the list of assets used to pay off part of the debt: "a huge list was made, we want to be very careful so that what is essential for the people of Minas Gerais is preserved", he stated.
Highways
Minas Gerais has the worst road safety in the Southeast and low protection on 3 for every 10 km of road, as pointed out in the "forgiving highways" study by the National Transport Confederation (CNT). For the CNT, in addition to the number of accidents and lives lost on the highways, the lack of investment generates a financial impact. In the state, only 22% of highways have a high safety rating and 47% have an intermediate level. The study was based on the poor quality of the asphalt, lack of shoulder, poor signage and lack of protective barriers.
The elected senator stated that, with the reversal of payments to Propag and other actions in Congress, he intends to guarantee money, within the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), for improvements to highways: "mainly by duplicating stretches of federal highways, which are a death row, where we are paying tolls", he added.
Domingos also spoke about local roads, those in rural areas that, in most cases, do not have asphalt paving: "What about rural producers? How do they get from one city to another? We have many stretches that are 'dirt roads' and the situation becomes a nightmare", he stated.
Judiciary Reform
Domingos Sávio (PL) defended, in an interview, changes in the Brazilian Judiciary. Asked about how to promote changes without weakening democracy and constitutional guarantees, the elected senator stated that the rule provided for in the Constitution allows a reform to be made based on the vote of a large majority.
"What weakens democracy is when it is disrespected, when the Constitution is disrespected, and I feel that it is being disrespected today (…) So you need not only to be able to use the articles that the Constitution already has, but, of course, to have the ability to check what needs to be improved and improve within the constitutional rule", he defended.
Public Security
The elected senator also defended changes in public security, saying that it is necessary to consider criminal factions as terrorist organizations and have the collaboration of other countries to combat these criminals, for him this does not put national sovereignty at risk.
“The only thing that happens is that you can have the collaboration of other countries to confront this terrorist organization, which is organized crime, which today has tentacles in several countries.”
In June of this year, the United States began to officially classify the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Sávio also stated that he intends to promote the processing of a Bill of his own authorship, which tightens the rules, in the Code of Criminal Procedure, against repeat criminals. "The individual is arrested because he was stealing a cell phone or because he broke into a residence, stole something, was caught with the proceeds of the crime and goes to the police station. And there, after the custody hearing, he is released, because the legislation does not provide for preventive detention for repeat offenders (…) I include in the Code of Criminal Procedure a paragraph saying that the repeat offender will be detained until the conclusion of his case. Put an end to this loose arrest business," he stated.
Biography of Domingos Sávio (PL)
Domingos Sávio Campos Resende is from São Tiago in Campo das Vertentes de Minas, graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in 1983 and had a political career in Divinópolis in the Center-West of Minas Gerais. He was a councilor between 1993 and 1996 and mayor between 1997 and 2001.
He assumed the position of state deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais (ALMG), where he served from 2003 to 2011 for two terms, until migrating to the Chamber of Deputies in Brasília, where he served as federal deputy for four consecutive terms.
This year, for the Liberal Party (PL), he was elected senator, with the highest number of votes in Minas Gerais, for the next eight years.
Domingos Sávio works in agribusiness and rural producers. The deputy presided over the Agricultural Cooperative of Divinópolis and the Rural Credit Cooperative, in addition to the city's Rural Union. He also worked on founding credit cooperative systems in the state.
