Planalto pays more than R$ 216,000 for the hotel where Lula is staying – 01/18/2023 – Politics

The Planalto Palace paid BRL 216,824 for the hotel where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and the first lady, Rosângela da Silva, Janja, are staying in Brasília.

According to the Presidency’s Secretary of Communication, the payment also includes accommodation for security teams.

The couple has been at the Meliá, in the central area of ​​the capital, since the transition period. They continued, however, after the inauguration, because the first lady said that she found the Palácio da Alvorada deteriorated and in need of renovation.

The amount paid was published in the Federal Official Gazette this Wednesday (18), in an extract of unenforceability of bidding. The justification is that there is “a need to implement measures to protect the authority and family members in official residences”.

Secom said that, at the request of the Federal Police (PF), which carries out presidential security, the accommodation on site was extended, since Alvorada was not opened for security inspection and the presidential couple’s teams before December 30 , when former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) left the residence.

In addition, the site had already had a security structure in place since November 2022. In a note, Planalto also said that hosting is scheduled until February 2, when Alvorada’s renovation should be completed.

Initially, the forecast for the end of works was on January 25 – the deadline, therefore, was postponed by 8 days. There was also the expectation that Lula and Janja could move into his official residence when he returns from international trips he will make next week.

Lula will make his first official trip to Buenos Aires, on the 23rd and 24th, where he will participate in a bilateral meeting with President Alberto Fernandes and in a meeting of Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). On the 25th, the PT will go to Montevideo, from where he will return to Brazil.

At breakfast with journalists last week, the petista criticized the conditions left by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in Alvorada. According to him, beds, mattresses and sofas were removed, which prevented the new presidential couple from moving to the place.

He said he has nowhere to live because, in addition to Alvorada, former Economy Minister Paulo Guedes left Granja do Torto “abandoned”.

“You know that we are living a sui generis moment in this country, and I [primeira-dama] Janja, we still don’t have a house to live in,” said the president.

“When he left on December 20, Janja and I went there to visit to see if it was possible for us to live there. Torto needs to be recovered, it looks like an abandoned thing, even though Guedes is living there. totally deteriorated thing,” he said.

With regard to Alvorada, Lula said that “everything is in disarray”. “I don’t know how they did it, why they did it, I don’t know if it was the couple’s private things, but they took everything. So we are doing repairs, because that is public property, it has to be taken care of”, she said.