Lula meets Minister of Tourism who opened the first crisis in the government

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will have a private meeting with the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil), this Tuesday afternoon (7) at the Planalto Palace, according to the official agenda. The meeting takes place one day after Lula decided to keep the Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), in office even under accusations of irregular conduct.

The agenda for the meeting with Daniela Carneiro was not disclosed. However, like Juscelino, the minister is also the protagonist of a crisis on the Esplanada dos Ministérios – she was the pivot of the first, at the beginning of the new government, in January.

According to investigation, Daniela Carneiro and her husband Waguinho (União Brasil), mayor of the municipality of Belford Roxo (RJ), would have an alleged political connection with the militia in the Baixada Fluminense through the former military policeman Juracy Alves Prudêncio, the “Jura” . He was convicted and arrested on charges of having led a militia in the region, cited in the final report of the CPI on Militias of the Legislative Assembly of Rio (Alerj) in 2008.

There is also the suspicion that the minister would have irregularly used public resources from the Special Campaign Financing Fund (FEFC) during last year’s election campaign that re-elected her to the Chamber of Deputies. According to an investigation cited by federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR), Daniela would have spent R$ 1.09 million on two printing plants that do not work at the addresses informed to the Board of Trade and the Federal Revenue Service.

Affiliated with União Brasil, Daniela and Juscelino are part of the party’s negotiation quota for Lula’s governance, which maintains a close relationship mainly due to the votes in the Chamber of Deputies – the third largest group, with 59 parliamentarians, behind only the PL (99) and the PT (69).