Ana Moser: Hortência, Raí and Joanna Maranhão regret leaving – 09/07/2023 – Sport

Dismissed from the Ministry of Sports by President Lula (PT) this Wednesday (6), Ana Moser had the support of athletes and sports entities to remain in her position.

After a campaign on social media for the former minister to remain, which ended with the appointment of federal deputy André Fufuca (PP-MA) to replace her, big names in national sport lamented Ana’s departure.

Yane Marques, president of the COB (Brazilian Olympic Committee) Athletes’ Commission, commented on the change in ministry less than a year before the Paris Olympic Games.

“We were part of this movement to support Ana. Now the fact is accomplished. Our desire now is for a management that is well-intentioned and open to dialogue. We don’t know the new minister, but it’s time to support the sport and, naturally, for him in this command,” he said.

Former swimmer Joanna Maranhão wrote that keeping Ana did not mean denying politics, but marking territory and affirming the sports portfolio as fundamental to the country.

“I won’t be the voter who will applaud the government’s mistakes. I never did. I won’t do it now. Ana continues to be the right person to propose a public sports policy for the State, and not for a government. It was the chance we had. And we lost,” he said.

Sport for Democracy criticized the Federal Government’s stance and said that sport, once again, serves as a bargaining chip. The movement was founded by names like Walter Casagrande, Fê Garay and Raí, and is made up of athletes, former athletes, journalists, artists and businesspeople.

“By giving up Moser in the name of governability, responding to pressure from what is most physiological in Brazilian politics, Lula takes a step back and deeply disappoints those people who heard from him, loud and clear, that they could believe and dream of a better future, in which sport would be an important instrument of inclusion and social transformation”, says the note.

For months, big names in national sports, including basketball and volleyball, had been taking a stand against Ana Moser’s dismissal.

“Sport is not a chore. Sport is health, quality of life, education, inclusion. Sport is transformative! Ana Moser took over the ministry 6 months ago, promoted important movements, but could leave due to political pressure. #FicaAnaMoser”, wrote the former volleyball player Virna Dias, in July.

Carol Solberg, a beach volleyball athlete, also campaigned for the former minister. “After a cycle of total abandonment, in which sport was used as a bargaining chip, we are finally resuming the place of sport as an agent of transformation. Therefore, I fully support Ana Moser’s stay in the Ministry of Sport “, he said in a video published in August.

Raí, a former football player, also recorded a video in support of the former minister. “We haven’t had someone like that at the head of the Ministry for a long time!”, he said in the publication.

“We are with Ana Moser and we support her work at the head of the Ministry of Sports”, Hortência published on her social networks two days ago.

The former minister released a statement this Wednesday, in which she regrets leaving the position, and in particular the interruption “in such a short period of time” of a policy for the area.

According to the text, from the Ministry of Sports, Ana told Lula himself, at the meeting where his departure was announced, that the PT member’s campaign promises for sport ended up having little to be implemented.

Moser was fired in Lula’s first major ministerial reform. The change aims to expand the government’s support base in Congress to approve measures of interest.