Lula government exposes headbanging when disavowing ministers – 08/04/2023 – Politics

Over the first hundred days, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government was the protagonist of at least four public episodes of head-to-head clashes, in which ministers were disavowed by the president himself or by members of the Planalto Palace.

In the most recent case, Lula disavowed Minister Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy). On Thursday (6), over coffee with journalists, the president said he was “taken by surprise” by the assistant’s statements that Petrobras would adopt a new pricing policy.

According to an announcement made by Silveira the day before, Wednesday (5), the state-owned company would start using the PCI model (internal competitiveness price), which would lead to a reduction in the price of diesel by up to R$ 0.25 per liter .

The statement angered investors and Petrobras’ management, which even released a note to say that “it has not received any proposal from the Ministry of Mines and Energy”. He also informed that any changes in the pricing policy “will be communicated to the market in a timely manner, and conducted by the company’s usual internal governance mechanisms”.

Lula told journalists at the Planalto Palace that there will be a change in the calculation of prices, but that it will be up to the president to guide the discussion.

“Petrobras’ price policy will be discussed by the government when the President of the Republic summons the government to discuss the price policy,” he declared. “As long as the President of the Republic does not summon the government to discuss price policy, we are not going to change what is working today.”

Government members say that noises are natural at the beginning of management and attribute part of them to the fact that some ministers have been away from public administration for a long time.

Another hypothesis is that these noises would be occurring precisely due to the opposite: excess of experienced names in the team.

Of Lula’s 37 ministers, 9 are former governors. Palace ministers ponder that this group was used to giving the final word on the measures they implemented in their respective states and now they need to get used to waiting for Lula’s approval to carry out projects.

Before the president’s authorization, the team needs to subordinate public policy ideas to Minister Rui Costa (Casa Civil), which has also been a reason for internal discomfort.

Since the campaign, Lula has said in meetings that he understands that everyone is “star” and has their own brilliance, but that in government you have to play as a team.

The way to minimize the public shocks that the president has encountered and seeks to put into practice is to centralize decisions and the dissemination of measures in the Planalto Palace.

The fear is that announcements made without being in agreement with the political core of the administration will generate friction with the market and with the National Congress and give the impression that Lula does not have the reins of his own team.

Therefore, the idea is that no minister announces a proposal before it has had the express consent of the Civil House and the president.

In the same way, the communication strategy of each portfolio needs to be at least informed to the Secretariat of Social Communication, headed by Minister Paulo Pimenta.

The orientation is that the projects are disclosed as being authored by the government and Lula and not by a specific minister. In an effort to avoid new episodes of clashes, Lula has emphasized this orientation in meetings.

Before publicly disavowing Alexandre Silveira, on March 14, the president made a charge to all his ministers in a statement that was publicly transmitted during a meeting.

Without naming names, he asked ministers who are authors of some “genius” to present them so that they receive the proper procedure.

“We do not want proposals from ministers. All proposals from ministers must be transformed into government proposals, and it will only be transformed into a government proposal when everyone knows what will be decided”, stated the president.

The scolding was a veiled message to Ministers Márcio França (Ports and Airports) and Carlos Lupi (Social Security).

Two days before the meeting, França had announced a program that would work in agreement with airlines, so that it would be possible to sell tickets at R$ 200 a stretch to retirees, students and civil servants.

This would be made possible by occupying empty seats on career flights. The disclosure was made in an interview with the newspaper Correio Braziliense.

Lupi had already determined, on March 13, the reduction of the interest ceiling on the INSS (National Social Security Institute) payroll loan, from 2.14% to 1.7%,

The measure contradicted Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) and was still being discussed with the Planalto Palace.

In Social Security, the understanding was that Rui Costa and Lula himself had already authorized the measure, when, in fact, the president had given approval so that the portfolio could go ahead with the studies and then be presented later, in case it was feasible. .

On March 21, after giving the ministers a hard time, Lula stated that he was in favor of the measure, but pondered that it was done wrongly, without due discussion with the Treasury and the government’s political nucleus.

This was the second reprimand made to Lupi. Right at the beginning of the government, the minister announced that he would change the pension reform.

The following day, he was denied authorization by Rui Costa, who said, at the time, that any measure of that type would pass through the Civil House. Likewise, he said that no proposal would go forward without the approval of the President of the Republic.

“There is no proposal being analyzed and thought about at this moment to review the reform, be it social security or otherwise. At this moment nothing is being elaborated”, stated Costa.

Such as Sheet As shown, the Lula 3 government reaches its 100th day in office with slippage in communication, and allies looking to make adjustments. In addition to the “genius” of ministers and public disavowals, there were controversial speeches by the head of the Executive himself.