Brasilia, February 2 (RHC-teleSUR) -- The elections last October renewed almost 40 percent of the representatives and about 80 percent of senators, leaving Brazil’s parliament more conservative than before.

The House of Representatives and Senate of Brazil elected last October started a new term on Sunday, with a slight shift towards the conservative side of the spectrum.

The 513 representatives and 27 senators have begun their work with a majority of socially conservative and economically neoliberal members, according to the profile by the Inter-Union Department of Legislative Consultation (Diap).

Among the elected legislators with no previous political experience, many are billionaires, businesspeople, TV hosts, Evangelical leaders and legislators' relatives, according to the study, while environmentalists for instance are less represented than the interests of the big farmers.

According to another survey by portal G1, of the 421 new representatives, almost 70 percent of them approve the austerity measures recently announced by the government, while only 40 percent wish to prohibit funding of electoral campaigns by private companies.

The new parliament has only 20 percent Black people – even though they are the majority of the population. Women represent 13 percent of new legislators.

Re-elected during the same elections for her second four year term, President Dilma Rousseff (Workers Party – PT, leftwing) already started her term one month ago. Despite the change of legislature, however, she will still benefit from the support of a majority, according to Diap, but with more resistance than during her first term, considering the short advantage she had over her conservative opponent Aecio Neves.