President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) confirmed this Friday (9) five ministers who will compose his government starting in January.
The announcement was made to journalists at the CCBB (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil), headquarters of the transition office, in Brasília.
Senator-elect Flávio Dino (PSB) will go to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security; the governor of Bahia, Rui Costa (PT), for the Civil House; diplomat Mauro Vieira for Itamaraty; former Minister of Defense José Múcio Monteiro for Defense; and former finance minister Fernando Haddad.
The last two names were the most anticipated and most under pressure to be announced. In the Economy, there is expectation that with the appointment of the minister, the negotiations around the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) will be facilitated.
On the other hand, the holder of Defense is expected to try to pacify the relationship between the PT government and the Armed Forces, after four years of crisis and politicization in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
Also for this reason, Lula should already announce this Friday the names of the commanders: General Julio Cesar de Arruda, in the Army; Admiral Marcos Sampaio Olsen, in the Navy; and Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno (Aeronautics).
The names were chosen by the president-elect and by Múcio respecting the criterion of seniority, in an attempt to disarm the resistance and possible insubordination of the military.
This Friday’s announcements kick off Lula’s top echelon. Initially, the idea of the president-elect was to announce them after diplomacy, scheduled for next Monday (12), at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).
But, according to the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, he decided to anticipate the names that were already certain to avoid further speculation.
In addition, the names are also starting to move. The future Minister of Finance has already met with representatives of the World Bank to discuss the organization’s investments in Brazil and participated in a dinner at Febraban. He was also this Thursday with minister Paulo Guedes (Guedes) at the ministry this week.
Despite the announcements, Lula has not yet said how many ministries his third term should have. The expectation of allies, based on conversations and the number of GTS (working groups) in the transition, is that it will be around 31. Today, under Bolsonaro, there are 23.
Last week, he had said that he already had “80% of the ministry in mind”, but that he would like to build an Esplanade with the broad front that helped elect him.
Lula had the widest range of parties during the campaign, with the support of nine acronyms for his coalition: Rede, Solidariedade, Avante, Agir, PC do B, PSOL PV and PSB, in addition to the PT.
After the victory, he began to articulate a base in Congress with União Brasil, MDB and PSD. The last two also make up the political nucleus in the transitional cabinet, as well as Citizenship.
The size of the broad front is also reflected in the list of nominees for the transition cabinet, which now exceeds 900 members.
An extra edition of the Diário Oficial da União, published at the beginning of the month, officialized 477 new names that will join the transition team, in different technical groups and also in the Social Participation Council of the Government Transition Cabinet. With that, the total reaches 904 members.
In total, there are 50 salary positions available for Lula’s team, the same number foreseen in previous transitions, but only 22 were named.
Such as Sheet showed, the bloated transition already anticipates the difficulty that the elected president will have to compose his government with the most distinct political forces. In work groups and in the dispute to command a ministry, it already causes noise.
The vice-president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), said on Thursday (8) that the announcement of government ministers should be made gradually and without haste. He pointed out that Lula had already thought of the first names.
“You gradually choose the names, announce them. First, you shouldn’t be rushed. Second, you should be gradual, do it in peace. Listening a lot, which is very good”, emphasized Alckmin.
Amidst the announcement of the first names, the PT must plead with Lula for the party’s presence in charge of ministries considered strategic.
Gleisi said, also on Thursday, that the PT is preparing a list that will be delivered to Lula by the beginning of next week with nominations of the party’s names for these key posts.
She mentioned the ministries of Finance, Civil House, Education, Health, Agrarian Development, Social Development and Cities.
“There are areas that we think are strategic and important for the party to be present. It has to be a lot of trust from the president, a lot of relationship with the president.”
The leader stated that the PT understands that allied subtitles must participate in the process, but pointed out that the subtitle requests this space.
“We know how big we are, how big the PT is, the importance it had in this process. It is the largest party in the coalition, the president’s party, we also want to put our names, our proposals for the ministries.”
Petistas claim that the party expects to command from ten to 12 ministries. The party also covets the folders of Culture, Political Articulation and the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
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