Lula’s government still has nearly 30 positions on the Esplanada for negotiations

After the first half of the first year of government, the Esplanada set up by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) still has 29 vacant second- and third-rank positions. They are boards, departments and related entities (such as public companies, municipalities and others). Today there is no secretariat without command in the 37 ministries. These posts are usually occupied by politicians or names appointed by government base parties.

The numbers swell when representations in the states are considered. In the survey on which Metrópoles was based, produced by the consultancy Ética Intellectual Politics, there is no such detail.

Target of Centrão parties, the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger today has four departments waiting to be filled. The holder of the folder, PT Wellington Dias, entered the crosshairs and his replacement is already suggested behind the scenes, despite his proximity to the representative.

In Health, the National Health Foundation (Funasa) is the target of the greatest greed. The provisional measure that extinguished Funasa (MP 1,156/2023) lost its validity and, after a limbo, the body should be rebuilt in the coming days, with great expectations about it.

In charge of Health, the sociologist and former president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) Nísia Trindade has been bombed, but Lula said he will not remove her from the post. For him, it is a matter of honor to carry out a technical/scientific management that is completely the opposite of that of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the area. During the pandemic, the former president became famous for his denialist positions and for preaching against vaccination of the population.

On the other hand, ministries based in the Planalto Palace – such as the Civil House, General Secretariat and Institutional Security Office (GSI) – are fully filled. This is also the case for the Ministries of Culture, Sports, Women, Racial Equality and Human Rights.

The provisional measure that restructured the Esplanada (MP 1,154/2023) was only voted by Congress on the last day of the term, in June. The vote took place at a time when the government’s political articulation was fragile.

Having problems in the relationship with Congress, important segments of the structure proposed by Lula were modified. At the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Minister Marina Silva lost her management of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR).

Sonia Guajajara’s unprecedented portfolio of Indigenous Peoples also lost the competence to recognize and demarcate indigenous lands.

center in government

In recent days, Centrão parties have advanced in negotiating positions in Lula’s third government. The entry of the block formed by the Republican and PP subtitles is already considered “certain” by interlocutors from the Planalto Palace.

Conversations intensified after the week of concentrated effort in the Chamber of Deputies, from July 3 to 7, which led to the approval of important agendas for the Executive, such as tax reform and the return of the casting vote that benefits the government in the Council Administrative Office of Federal Resources (CARF).

Negotiations are moving towards sealing agreements that can guarantee more peace of mind for Lula in voting for the remainder of the year.

Among the acronyms that have an eye on the Planalto, there is, precisely, the Progressive Party (PP), the same legend of the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), the Republicans and the União Brasil. In the case of the latter, despite having already appointed three ministers (Juscelino Filho, in Communications, Waldez Góes, in Integration, and Celso Sabino, in Tourism), loyalty is still not complete.

If the adhesion of the three parties is confirmed, the government would count 217 parliamentarians in its allied base in the Chamber (including the votes of the PT bench, which has 68 deputies). The number is close to what is needed to pass bills: 257 votes.

The latest moves show that the government managed to align agendas to achieve economic victories before the parliamentary recess. The gains must be attributed not only to Lula’s base, which is still in agreement, but also to the center parties that waved to the government.

*With information from Metrópoles

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