Lula’s ministers are at odds with demands from the centrão – 06/11/2023 – Power

The recent demonstrations of dissatisfaction by parliamentarians with the Lula (PT) government have provoked hard clashes between members of the president’s team.

Direct collaborators of the petista attribute the current disarticulation in Congress to the contempt of ministers for agreements sealed with deputies and senators.

In the core of the government, the difficulties in the Legislative have been charged to the accounts of ministers who refuse to make room for the newly added, especially those from the centrão.

Complaints are not restricted to non-compliance with orders for appointments and release of funds, but include making agendas available and even sponsoring June festivals.

Alerted by ministers of the palatial kitchen, Lula determined compliance with these guidelines under penalty of being exonerated. According to the president’s allies, if the problem persists, he should warn his team at the next ministerial meeting.

In recent days, after the threat of the House to overthrow the MP (provisional measure) that restructured the Esplanada dos Ministérios, the political articulation of the Planalto has made appeals for the requests of congressmen to be met.

Minister Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations), who deals with political negotiations with the Legislature, promoted a series of meetings with other ministers to identify obstacles.

One of the toughest conversations took place, according to reports, with Esther Dweck, from the portfolio of Management and Innovation in Public Services. The minister resisted the nomination of nominees for the branches of the SPU (Secretary of the Union’s Heritage), reserved, for example, for godchildren of politicians from the União Brasil.

Until last week, the secretariats had been headed by interims, which fostered a discussion between her and Padilha.

Likewise, there was resistance from the minister to give up some spaces at Funpresp (Fundação de Previdência Complementar do Servidor da União). After the meeting with Padilha, however, it was agreed that the body should be with a person appointed by Podemos.

Esther further agreed to release the nominations, and a series of nominations are expected to be published in the coming days.

Also in the last week, the minister met with the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, and the president of Ibama, Agostinho Mendonça, who resisted the appointment of political sponsors at the institute.

But, according to members of the government, Marina herself acted to convince Agostinho to comply with the agreements.

Deputies and senators also complain of difficulties in the Ministry of Culture. They say that sponsorship requests for June parties were denied on the grounds of lack of time for execution, having resorted to Caixa. In the bank, the time for release can consume 40 days.

At the Ministry of Education, even PT members have complained about the minister’s reluctance to accept nominations from his party mates. Charged, Camilo Santana claimed to have received carte blanche from Lula to assemble his direct team.

Another source of difficulties is in the Ministry of Health, a target of greed even by the PP. Petistas complain that minister Nísia Trindade defined the nominations in the ministry without consulting the other parties and even peers.

Parliamentarians say that the PP’s dream of consumption is to command the Health portfolio as a whole.

Another PT member who has been criticized by his peers is Paulo Teixeira, from Agrarian Development. On him rest the same criticisms of non-compliance with agreements to nominate allies of centrão parties and the PT itself. Teixeira has received criticism from supporters in São Paulo.

To placate resistance, Padilha also met with the president of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros, and Caixa Econômica Federal, Maria Rita Serrano.

Lula has been advised not to treat any of his ministries as taboos in political negotiations — except those considered in the Planalto kitchen, such as the Institutional Relations Secretariat, Civil House and Treasury.

The delay in releasing imposing amendments and extra funds (which are part of the budget of the ministries, but which will be sponsored by deputies) is also a complaint, including government allies in Congress, and affects all portfolios.

One of the main complaints of parliamentarians is that Padilha would not have ink in his pen to enforce the agreements he articulates. For this reason, Lula himself said, in a meeting with allies, that peers needed to comply with the minister’s guidelines.

The president took the field personally in the political articulation after running the risk of seeing the MP that redesigned the Esplanada and increased the number of ministries from 23 to 37 defeated.

Finally, the provisional measure was approved on the 31st of May after the threat of the deputies to defeat the MP in the face of widespread dissatisfaction with the political articulation of the Planalto.

To try to assuage the dissatisfactions, Lula had a meeting with the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), last Monday (5), in which they talked about the articulation problems. On the occasion, the president committed to unlocking the obstacles.

He also admitted to making changes in the ministries that are occupied by nominees from the União Brasil as a way of better contemplating the Chamber and increasing the number of votes.

Even so, the climate with the deputies remained tense until the middle of last week. So much so that the Planalto even invited party leaders to a meeting in the Planalto, but the meeting ended up not happening, in part, because the parliamentarians considered that there was still no climate.

Deputies want to hold the meetings when the government speeds up appointments and releases of amendments that interest them.

The effort of political articulators occurs because members of the Planalto Palace know that they do not have enough votes to approve measures of interest to the government without Lira’s influence.

According to the mayor and Lula himself, the Planalto has assured about 130 of 513 seats in the plenary – although the base with parties that make up the government is larger.