Janja influenced Lula’s first year and acted on different topics – 12/31/2023 – Power

First Lady Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja, 57, was an influential advisor to President Lula (PT) in the PT’s first year in office, with activities that went beyond the limits of the Palácio do Planalto, reaching the Legislative and Judiciary branches.

According to reports, Janja was successful, for example, in stopping more significant cuts in resources in areas that are dear to her — such as the animal cause — in the preparation of the 2024 Budget.

The first lady also worked to increase the female presence in the Judiciary, even presenting names of women to advise court offices — although she did not disagree with the appointment of Flávio Dino to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) after seeing her attempt frustrated. to nominate a lawyer for the vacancy.

The first lady’s ideas even required the involvement of other ministries. This was the case with the modernization of the Palácio da Alvorada cinema room. The Ministry of Culture had to be contacted to mediate the transfer of a new projector to Cine Alvorada, at Janja’s request.

The movie theater reopened in November, more than four months after the first lady planned new facilities.

On the 15th, the Presidency’s Administration Secretariat worked hard to make possible a demand made by Janja on the same day: the donation of goods seized by the Federal Revenue to children of outsourced employees during gatherings organized by Janja at the Planalto and Alvorada palaces, in addition to Granja do Torto.

The donation was authorized on the 18th. “Considering the availability of the requested goods and the absence of legal obstacles, the request for goods was fulfilled”, said the Revenue.

Janja also worked to increase resources allocated to animal causes.

After a cut in the allocation of the program to implement the National Agenda for Protection, Defense, Welfare and Animal Rights in 2023, she used her influence with government leaders in Congress to guarantee supplementary funding for the next year.

The program is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment. In 2023, the forecast for spending in this area was initially R$30 million. But it was cut in half.

Therefore, the cause’s activists, with Janja’s support, articulated an expansion of these expenses in 2024. The final approved project reserves almost R$65 million, of which R$25 million was guaranteed in conversations between Janja’s interlocutors and the rapporteur of the Budget, deputy Luiz Carlos Motta (SP), who is from PL.

Since the presidential campaign, Janja has introduced the animal agenda into Lula’s agenda. At the beginning of 2022, for example, he met with animal rights entities. When he took office, Lula walked up the ramp of the Palácio do Planalto alongside Janja and his dog Resistência.

According to Lula’s allies, the first lady was the creator of the suggestion that the company Itaipu Binacional lend to the Presidency of the Republic, as a loan, a golf cart for Lula’s mobility after the hip surgery he underwent in September.

She also dealt with the often slow pace of the administrative machine.

According to reports, Janja complained about the delay in restoring the historic Balthazar Martinot Boulle clock, which belonged to Dom João 6º and was destroyed in the coup acts of January 8th.

The watch was only delivered to the Swiss embassy on December 28, after almost a year of coup attacks that resulted in the vandalization of the historic item. The piece will be sent to the European country for restoration. The time it took to conclude the cooperation agreement was allocated to the necessary bureaucratic procedures.

That wasn’t his only complaint. Despite being prevented from holding a formal position in the government structure, under penalty of the act being classified as nepotism, she continued to work daily in an office close to Lula’s, fulfilled agendas separately from the PT member and launched a periodic live program to deal with Executive policies.

Still, the absence of an official position is the subject of complaints.

Such as Sheet showed, Janja was upset when she was informed, in January, of the impossibility of having her own office.

Contrary to the assessment of Esplanada’s colleagues, Flávio Dino was in favor of drafting a decree allowing her to carry out voluntary work within the Presidency.

In March, information was released that Janja would head an office for Strategic Actions in Public Policies. The first lady published a photo on social media with Minister Esther Dweck (Management) and said in the caption that the meeting served to “directions on the creation” of the cabinet.

With Dino’s legal approval, Dweck sketched out a structure design in which Janja’s office would be linked to Lula’s personal office and there would be reshuffling of positions — that is, no new position would be created from a budgetary point of view.

However, according to reports from those who follow the matter, members of the Civil House and AGU (General Attorney’s Office of the Union) told Lula that, even if the first lady did not receive a salary, the fact of being appointed to a structure in the Planalto would make her, in practice, a public servant.

This means that it would be exposed and subject to investigation by control bodies, such as the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union), CGU (General Comptroller of the Union), the Justice itself — without having a privileged forum —, in addition to being able to be summoned to speak in Congress.

In addition to Dino, Márcio Macêdo (General Secretariat of the Presidency) and Paulo Pimenta (Secretariat of Social Communication) are among the ministers to whom Janja usually turns to present his demands.

Always attentive to protests on social media, she demands immediate responses from the Department of Social Communication. She spoke directly to Pimenta on the phone to measure the repercussions of the end of the exemption for international remittances of up to US$50, which ended up being revised also under pressure from the first lady.

With the head of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, the relationship had upheavals amid the minister’s efforts to bring Lula closer to the military.

According to reports in Esplanada, on April 19 Múcio went to Palácio da Alvorada to insist that Lula participate in a ceremony celebrating Army Day, which would have upset the first lady.

Since the election campaign, Janja has stated that she wants to give a new meaning to the role of first lady, historically associated with volunteer work. The sociologist’s omnipresence and her assessment on topics ranging from economics to culture, however, caused friction with ministers and longtime allies of the Chief Executive — some of them even distanced themselves from the PT member.

A Sheet He contacted the first lady’s press office, but received no response.