Lula shamefully inaugurates ministers and irritates the center – 09/13/2023 – Power

President Lula (PT) decided to swear in the new ministers of his government this Wednesday morning (13), after a lengthy ministerial reform that opened space for the consolidation of the centrão in the Executive.

The inauguration of Silvio Costa Filho (Ports and Airports) and André Fufuca (Sports) takes place in a restricted and closed ceremony in the president’s office, at Palácio do Planalto. At the same event, Márcio França will be appointed, who has been reassigned to the new Small and Medium Business portfolio.

The event did not appear on the president’s official agenda as an inauguration ceremony and his advisors always treated it as just a “meeting”.

The act contrasts with the events with the presence of authorities, parliamentarians and speeches to mark the appointment of government ministers, such as the inauguration of the last minister who had entered the government, tourism leader Celso Sabino — also nominated by the center.

Sabino’s ceremony was in the main hall of Planalto, with the presence of some of the main representatives of the political class, such as the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The timid ceremony irritated a wing of the center, which was already criticizing the drawn-out negotiation of this ministerial reform to make room for the PP and the Republicans in the first echelon of the Esplanada dos Ministérios.

Members of the party group say that the absence of an inauguration event in the halls of Palácio do Planalto shows the discredit that the president has given to the entry of new ministers from the PP and the Republicans.

This is a new factor that Lira’s allies cite when questioning whether the inauguration of the new ministers will have an effect on expanding President Lula’s base in the Chamber of Deputies.

Until moments before the ceremony, Palácio do Planalto was still treating the event as a meeting, without informing whether the terms of inauguration would be signed. However, some guests, dressed in party clothes, began to arrive at the palace and announced that they would attend the inauguration.

Silvio Costa Filho and Fufuca will participate in the position transfer ceremonies in their respective ministries in the afternoon.

The leader of the Republicans in the Chamber, Hugo Motta (PB), confirmed that it was a “more closed inauguration”, in a ceremony only in Lula’s office and for a few people. He said that “it doesn’t bother him at all” about this situation.

“The bench is very calm [com a posse discreta], especially because the invitation was made for the transmission of the position, this afternoon, at 3 pm. So this possession [no gabinete] It is a more closed inauguration, with the participation only of the minister’s family, with the President of the Republic. And I, as leader of the bench, was invited to represent our deputies here,” he said.

When the event was already underway, the government published the appointments of Fufuca, Silvio Costa Filho and França in the Official Gazette of the Union.

The ex-minister of Sports, Ana Moser, was also dismissed. The act of dismissal does not appear “on request” — as is often the case even with dismissed ministers, but who leave the government without any problems —, making it clear that the former minister wanted to establish the position that she left her position against her will.

On the 6th, Lula completed the first major ministerial reform of his government, to make room for the central political bloc. The objective is to increase your support base in the National Congress and more easily advance proposals of interest to you.

To accommodate the new ministers, Lula fired the then head of Sports, Ana Moser, a former Olympic athlete, activist in the area and first-time supporter of the PT member.

The other person affected by the reform was Márcio França, who was removed from the Ports and Airports portfolio to take over the new ministry of Small and Medium-sized Companies. The new structure was announced by the president during the ministerial reform negotiations

During his traditional weekly broadcast, Conversas com o Presidente, last week, Lula said that it is “always very difficult” to fire a minister to meet a political agreement. However, he needed to build a strong base in the National Congress.

“It’s always very difficult to call someone and say: ‘look, I need the ministry because I made an agreement with the political party and I need to respond’. But that’s the policy. The government has important proposals to pass in the National Congress”, he stated.

The announcement of the government’s new ministers had already been marked by extreme discretion and even the absence of public gestures from the president. Fufuca and Silvio Costa Filho were announced through a brief note from Secom (Communication Secretariat of the Presidency), which also dealt with the relocation of Márcio França.

Shortly afterwards, the same Secom released a photo of the new ministers alongside the Minister of the Institutional Relations Secretariat, Alexandre Padilha. Lula did not appear in any images alongside the new members of her government, with whom she had met at the Palácio da Alvorada moments before the official announcement.

The first exchange of ministers in the Lula government also took place very discreetly, with just the signing of the instrument of investiture and a formal photo. However, the political context was different.

Marcos Antonio Amaro took over the Institutional Security Office in May this year, replacing Gonçalves Dias, who had been fired after the leak of images from Planalto’s internal circuit that showed inside the palace on the day of the January 8 invasion, in addition to a certain leniency of some members of the organization with the protesters.

The government, therefore, did not want to make a fuss about the change in the body, which was under suspicion of collusion with the coup protesters.

Months later, Lula fired his ally Daniela Carneiro from the Ministry of Tourism, after União Brasil claimed the position. This is because the then minister left the party, which began to treat her as a personal recommendation from Lula and not from the party.

The inauguration of his replacement, Celso Sabino, on the other hand, was marked by a large ceremony at Palácio do Planalto, with the presence of ministers, government leaders in Congress, parliamentarians, including Lira.