Janaina Paschoal

Janaina Conceição Paschoal (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒɐnaˈinɐ kõsejˈsɐ̃w pa(j)s'kwaw], born 25 June 1974) is a Brazilian jurist and politician. She is a member of the Progressistas (PP) since 2024, having been elected state representative of the State of São Paulo by the Social Liberal Party (PSL) from 2019 to 2023. She is also a lawyer and a law professor at the University of São Paulo.

She obtained her doctorate in criminal law from the University of São Paulo in 2002, advised by Miguel Reale Júnior. Her thesis was entitled Constitution, Criminalization and Minimum Criminal Law. Paschoal played a major role in the impeachment of then Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, alongside Miguel Reale Júnior, and Hélio Bicudo. She actively participated in the proceedings both in the Chamber of Deputies and the Brazilian Senate.

In the Brazilian general elections of 2018, Paschoal was elected state representative, receiving over 2 million votes, the most votes of any congressperson in the history of Brazil. In the 2022 São Paulo gubernatorial election, she decided to run for the Senate seat held by José Serra, being defeated after only achieving 447,550 votes and coming in fourth place, with 2.07% of the valid votes.

Biography

Paschoal was born on 25 June 1974, in the Tatuapé neighborhood of São Paulo, daughter of Ricardo José de Gusmão Paschoal and Regina Célia Carvalho Paschoal. She has two younger sisters, Luana and Nohara, and a younger brother, Jorge, and has been married since the age of 26 to Laércio, an economist.

Paschoal began to work at the age of 13, selling jewelry, and bread and honey prepared by her mother.