Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Thursday appointed 13 other ministers, including his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, whom he said would not be part of the cabinet, to head Industry and Commerce, while the fate of Senator Simone Tebet is still up in the air.
As had been advanced in recent days, Nisia Trindade will head Health, while Camilo Santana will be in charge of Education. Culture will go to Margareth Menezes and Labor to Luiz Marinho. Also noteworthy are the appointments of Cida Gonçalves for the Women’s portfolio and, above all, that of Wellington Dias for Social Development, to which Tebet aspired.
With the appointment of Dias, the Workers’ Party (PT) reserves the most important portfolios and it remains to be seen what will be the fate of Tebet, who according to the Brazilian press would have ruled out participating in Lula da Silva’s new government if this ministry was not the one he was in charge of.
The other ministry for which he had sounded was that of the Environment, to which another of Lula’s allies in the second round of the elections, Marina Silva, also aspires. The PT and its partners would have pressured in the last days for both to share this portfolio, dividing it in two.
It will be necessary to wait until next week, «Monday or Tuesday», said Lula this Thursday, to know the rest of a cabinet in which Anielle Franco will be the Minister of Racial Equality and Silvio Almeida will be the Minister of Human Rights, as representatives of African descent, together with Menezes of Culture.
«We are trying to create a government that manages to represent the maximum of the political forces that helped us in the campaign», explained Lula.
«That was the political legacy that we left in this country and that made us win the most difficult elections in the history of this country», remarked Lula, who warned that despite having defeated Jair Bolsonaro, a «rabid» bolsonarismo is still in the streets «unwilling to recognize the defeat».
«In addition to governing competently, we will have to defeat Bolsonarismo in the streets,» said Lula, who will take office on January 1, 2023.
A total of 37 ministries, offices and agencies will make up the new administration. With these appointments, there are already 17 confirmed portfolios plus institutions such as Institutional Relations, General Secretariat, General Attorney’s Office and Comptroller’s Office, whose heads were also announced by Lula on Thursday.
These appointments are completed by Esther Dweck in Management, Márcio França in Ports and Airports, Luciana Santos in Science and Technology, as well as those already known for weeks, Fernando Haddad in Economy, Rui Costa in Civil House, Flávio Dino in Justice, José Múcio in Defense and Mauro Vieira in Foreign Affairs.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
