Lula: PT and PSB will be affected in reform; Alckmin resists – 8/4/2023 – Power

President Lula (PT) signaled to members of the top of his party the disposition that the ministerial reform has as target portfolios today of ministers without political sponsors and representatives of PSB and PT.

In addition to the space occupied by the PT on the Esplanada, the assessment is that the size of the PSB —the party of vice-president Geraldo Alckmin— also does not correspond to the acronym’s bench in Congress. With 15 federal deputies, the PSB currently has three ministries.

In the new configuration under discussion, the party would lose a ministry. This new design would require, however, a conversation between Lula and Alckmin. The deputy shows clear signs of resisting change.

Even for that reason, according to allies, the meeting with the PT command was inconclusive – to the disappointment of government articulators and irritation of centrão parliamentarians.

Lula’s conversation with PT members took place on Wednesday night (2) at the Alvorada Palace, where Lula received the congressmen.

Lula was attended by government leaders in the Senate and in the Chamber, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA) and José Guimarães (PT-CE), respectively, minister Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) and the national president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann.

According to Sheet found out, Lula made projections of how the Esplanada could look in the musical chairs that should take place in the next few weeks, to accommodate PP and Republican allies and, with that, achieve a broader base in the National Congress.

Not even Ana Moser (Sports) would be immune to reform. The recreation of the Ministry of Micro and Small Companies is also not discarded, with the aim of increasing the number of seats in the government.

The PT today has 11 of the 37 ministries: Education, Women, Management and Innovation, Finance, Labor, General Secretariat, Institutional Relations Secretariat, Social Communication, Agrarian Development, Civil House and Social Development.

The petista does not intend to change, at this first moment, the palace ministries —Civil House, General Secretariat, Institutional Relations and Social Communication— nor give up those considered “hearts of the government”, such as Finance, Education and Health.

The Health portfolio was one of the most coveted by the centrão parties, but Lula quickly ruled out the possibility of an exchange.

“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: the [ministra] Nisia [Trindade] she is not a Brazilian minister, she is my minister,” he said recently.

Social Development, the department responsible for Bolsa Família, is also one of the parties’ targets. Wellington Dias is under pressure, mainly because his management has been facing criticism even from within the government, starting with the president himself.

Senator Jaques Wagner told journalists this week that the chance of the ministry ending up in the hands of the centrão “tends to zero”.

Members of the centrão have complained that, if they don’t have the command of Social Development, they want a portfolio of the same robustness or budget. The equation, therefore, still does not close.

On the PSB side, the vice-president’s party has Flávio Dino in Justice and Márcio França in Ports and Airports, in addition to Alckmin himself in Development, Industry, Commerce and Services.

Of the three starters, only França is appointed as a representative of the PSB bench, since Dino and Alckmin are newcomers to the party.

The vice-president’s ministry is also usually courted by members of the centrão. The president of the Republicans, Marcos Pereira, commanded the portfolio during the management of Michel Temer (MDB).

But there is an obstacle to changing the folder’s command: Alckmin, despite being very disciplined and in line with the president’s directives, has been doing a job well evaluated by palatians and likes the ministry.

Interlocutors of the vice president reject the possibility of change and emphasize, for example, the work he did in the popular car program.

Praised by the president, the proposal emerged in a survey of domestic consumption commissioned by the government as a factor that increased its popularity with the middle class.

But if Lula chooses to remove Alckmin from the portfolio, the Vice-Presidency could be strengthened with programs. He could still migrate to Defense in place of José Múcio Monteiro. The vice president is highly rated among uniformed officers.

On the other hand, Múcio’s allies point out that the moment is still delicate for a possible departure from the ministry. At the beginning of the year, the military staged a crisis in the government and Lula dismissed the then commander of the Army after less than a month in office.

Múcio joined the government with the mission of appeasing and depoliticizing the Forces, after four years in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. Despite being a friend of Lula and close to congressmen, he is part of a wing of independents and “without sponsors” in the first echelon.

Ministers Silvio Almeida (Human Rights) and Ana Moser are also part of this wing.

Silvio, despite not having a budget and size that appeals to the centrão, can enter a triangulation: accommodate someone who is already a minister, but who lost office to the centrão parties.

The Sports portfolio, in turn, is in the Republicans’ sights. The party even has a name to indicate: Deputy Silvio Costa Filho (PE). The PP also already has its minister, André Fufuca, although it is not defined which chair on the Esplanada he should go to.

On July 11, almost a month ago, Ana Moser was expected to resign. But the athlete had a meeting with Lula, and the topic was not even on the agenda. A wing of the government interprets it as a bad sign for the minister who expected to hear from Lula the guarantee that she will remain in office.

The former volleyball player survived and left for Australia and New Zealand, where she went to represent Brazil and follow the Women’s World Cup.

If Lula chooses to remove the minister, he will face difficulties in his speech with the left, since it will reduce female participation in the first echelon. With that, he will lose the record for female ministers — reaching 10 out of 37, the same number as Dilma Rousseff (PT).

The resignation of the president of Caixa, Rita Serrano, is also taken for granted. Today, the main candidate for the portfolio is the former deputy and lawyer close to Arthur Lira (PP-AL), Margarete Coelho.

Lula’s lack of definition threatens to undermine his relationship with the National Congress. The expectation was that Lula would implement these changes when he returned from the parliamentary recess, which did not materialize.

For allies of the president, the prestigious inauguration of Celso Sabino (União Brasil) in Tourism this Thursday (3) served to relax the environment.