Lula decides to keep Juscelino Filho after case of irregular rates

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) decided to keep the Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (PSD-MA). The decision was taken after a meeting between Lula and his minister yesterday afternoon.

Despite having spared the auxiliary, Lula’s allies hope that from now on Planalto will increase the pressure on União Brasil to deliver support and votes to the National Congress to advance the government’s proposals.

According to the president’s allies, if the acronym does not live up to expectations, there will be retaliation against the party as a whole.

The minister’s maintenance in office comes after pressure from allies for his departure, amid complaints of irregularities involving daily rates received by the holder of Communications and the paving of a road, with amendment resources, on his farm in Maranhão.

In addition to downplaying the allegations, Lula’s allies cite at least two main reasons for keeping the minister in office: not to disagree with União Brasil; and open the door for ministers to leave and create wear and tear with little more than two months of government.

Some members of União Brasil identify friendly fire against the minister in the accusations, but the party is closed in support of Juscelino. The caption, which also indicated names for two other folders on the Esplanada, has no name to replace it and the topic was not even discussed between the president and the party leadership. Lula knows, say allies, that she could not change a minister without first discussing it with the leaders.

Moreover, there is another complicating factor, the minister’s departure would open up a front of dispute within the PT. The party already wanted, during the transition, to have stayed with the portfolio and may, according to allies, try to advance over the ministry once again.

Other than that, Juscelino’s resignation would set a precedent very early on in the Esplanada: ministers with similar complications in the future would already have to leave office in the same way.

Those around the Chief Executive say that, despite the decision, Lula is very irritated with the episode. Before the meeting with the president, Juscelini published a video on his social networks in which he defends himself against accusations of misuse of per diems and the FAB (Brazilian Air Force) plane.

The minister points out an “error in the per diem system”, which ended up improperly including dates referring to weekends in the calculation of values, when there were no public agendas. Juscelino also adds that all unduly paid per diems were returned to public coffers. In the video, the minister claims that he has been the victim of “distorted attacks” and claims that there were no irregularities in his travels.

Last week, the president had shown dissatisfaction with the position of the assistant and stated that, if he did not prove his innocence, he would not be kept in the government.

According to a note released by the folder on Thursday, the holder of the folder decided to return the value of the per diem for trips from Maranhão and São Paulo.