A clown who has twice been elected to Brazil’s Congress under the slogan “It can’t get any worse” has said he is too embarrassed by his fellowpoliticians to run again.

Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, known as Tiririca, this week has said he is ashamed of his colleagues – more than half of whom are reportedly under investigation for corruption – and will not run again in 2018.

As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Tiririca had continued working in a circus on weekends and he said he was returning to clowning full-time.

“I am embarrassed,” said Tiririca, which translates as Grumpy, in an eight-minute rant to a nearly empty session – his first address to Brazil’s lower house in his seven years in office.

“I walk with my head up high because I did nothing wrong, but many of you do not have the guts to do that. You even put disguises to go out. Being a congressman is a shame.”

Tiririca won office in 2010 with more than 1.3 million votes, outpolling every other candidate in Brazil’s largest state, São Paulo. He was re-elected by a landslide in 2014.

Tiririca used his speech to Congress to blast the sloth and corruption of many of his 513 colleagues. “We are well paid to work, but only eight of 513 actually show up here often. I am one of those eight and I am a clown,” he said.

One congressman, Celso Jacob, is serving a sentence for wrongdoing when he was mayor of the city of Tres Rios and has to sleep in prison after voting. Local media reported that more than half of the politicians are under investigation.

All the seats in Brazil’s lower house will be up for grabs in the election next October.