Government leader in Congress minimized changes made by deputies in the attributions of the ministries of the Environment and Indigenous Peoples.| Photo: Pedro França/Agência Senado

The leader of the government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (without party-AP), minimized the crisis in the environmental area faced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) since last week with Ministers Marina Silva, of the Environment, and Sônia Guajajara, of the Indigenous Peoples. According to him, there is only “anxiety” on the part of the population due to the changes approved in committee by the deputies.

The changes in the structure of the folders led to a meeting between Lula and the ministers last Friday (26) and to a get-together event over the weekend at the Alvorada Palace, in which the president is trying to find a way out so as not to deplete the power of the ministries. Randolfe says that there was an “overdimensioning of the crisis”.

“There is an anxiety on the part of Brazilian society to restore the protagonism of the environmental agenda and to defend and protect the rights of native peoples. That’s normal. But the president himself said: this game is just beginning”, said the senator to Veja this Sunday (28).

Randolfe also ruled out any possibility of Marina leaving the government due to the emptying of the ministry’s power, as occurred during the Lula government in the past. And also the clash between the two, which led him to ask to disaffiliate from the Sustainability Network party after Ibama denied Petrobras the permit to drill an oil extraction well at the mouth of the Amazon River.

“It was not even considered. I am very sure that the present and the future will not repeat the past”, he concluded.