Centrão pressure threatens record number of women under Lula – 07/19/2023 – Politics

Pressure from centrão parties for more ministries could cost President Lula (PT) the loss of the record number of women in the first echelon, after just over six months in office.

On Friday (14), the PT official made the second change of his government official, by dismissing Daniela Carneiro and appointing Celso Sabino in Tourism. With the change, there are 10 women in the 37 posts on the Esplanada.

The level is the same as the previous record, held by former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), who had 10 women in 37 folders. The greed of the centrão, however, has targeted positions held by ministers.

In addition to Daniela, there is at least one more in the political bloc’s plans: Science and Technology, by Luciana Santos. In this case, the national president of PC do B would not leave the government, but would go to the Ministry of Women, which today is under the command of Cida Gonçalves. With that, the level of ministers would drop to nine.

There is also the presidency of Caixa, under the command of Rita Serrano, in the sights of the captions. That exchange is seen as imminent, according to palace aides.

If the changes are implemented, Lula would lose the record for women on the Esplanada. When elected the country’s first president, Dilma placed nine women in the first echelon. But still in June 2011 Gleisi Hoffmann (PT) took over the Civil House, raising the government to the top of the list of female participation in the first echelon.

The petista was elected with a speech to set up a government that contemplated the diversity of gender, color and race in the country.

Now palace assistants and Lula’s allies are concerned about keeping a good number of ministers in the first echelon, but they say that this cannot politically immobilize the head of the Executive.

PT president and federal deputy, Gleisi Hoffmann defended Sheet the participation of women, but with the same line, saying that it is not a matter of “mathematics”.

“The president is aware that politics requires maintaining a balance between mathematics and the symbolic. Maintaining social representation in government and at the same time seeking support in Congress. Is it a simple, easy thing? No. That’s why he’s using this time to evaluate and decide”, he said, adding that, at this moment, everything is about speculation.

Minister Simone Tebet (Planning), who had parity in the ministries as her campaign for the Presidency and is now in the government, minimized any changes, but defended maintaining proportionality if the changes were confirmed.

“We don’t need to nail the name of a woman to a certain position, the important thing is proportionality, which never falls, and representativeness. President Lula and the team, I think, are attuned to that too. If it’s not specifically in these ministries, which may be in others or compensated with several other executive secretaries”, he said on the last 12th.

For now, at least one minister has left the hot seat, as determined by Lula. The Sports Ministry was in the Republicans’ sights, but Lula signaled to interlocutors that he was unwilling to dismiss Ana Moser in this ministerial reform.

Before leaving for Brussels, where he participated in the EU-Celac summit, the representative met with the minister, at the height of rumors of an eventual resignation. Lula gave her the mission to travel to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and to make Brazil’s candidacy for the next tournament official.

In an interview with Record on Thursday (13), Lula rejected the idea that he was exchanging women on the Esplanada. “First, that I’m not taking too many women. Second, if you take into account what you hear about speculation, they will soon take me out”, she joked.

Another minister also left the sights of the parties in the group led by the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), but this one had public gestures from the president.

The centrão coveted the Ministry of Health, historically commanded by the PP, and today under the leadership of Nísia Trindade.

But Lula, on more than one occasion, ruled that possibility out.

“There are ministers who are not interchangeable. There are people and functions that are a matter of the personal choice of the President of the Republic. I have already said publicly: Nísia is not a minister of Brazil, she is my minister”, he said at an event for the sanction of the Mais Médicos program law, on the 14th.

The participation of women was always highlighted in his speeches. “Never before in the history of Brazil have there been so many female ministers”, said the then president-elect when announcing his chosen ones during the transition.

The centrão pressures Lula for more space in the first echelon in exchange for support in the National Congress.

In the case of Daniela, União Brasil wanted to change the nomination for the position, since the minister asked to disaffiliate from the party.

The chief executive, even so, kept the minister in office for a month and a half, while the party ended negotiations with the Planalto for the second echelon.

On another front, Lula’s nominations to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) also face questions about gender representation.

In succession to Ricardo Lewandowski, Lula has already signed up his lawyer, Cristiano Zanin, who was approved on a Saturday in the Senate at the end of June.

In the second wave, on the occasion of the retirement of Minister Rosa Weber, the current president of the court, the main candidates are also men, including the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias. But, under public pressure from social movements, Lula collects information on possible candidates.

According to allies, Lula should take into account the same attributes as the first choice: young, loyal, not afraid to face issues that generate wear and tear in public opinion and with whom the president is free to talk directly.