The definition of names for the ministries will only begin in ten days, said President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva today (9th). In the first press conference after the elections, he said that he will only start assembling the team for the future government after returning from his trip to Egypt and Portugal.
At the invitation of the Consortium of Governors of the Legal Amazon and the president of Egypt, Abdul Al-Sisi, Lula will go to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik, where the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 27) is being held. The president-elect will arrive in Egypt on Tuesday (15th) and return to Brazil on the 18th, with the forecast of a one-day visit to Portugal during the return trip.
The future president said he was concerned about the formation of the ministry, but did not name names. “I’m more worried than you are, but I can’t tell you yet,” Lula replied, when asked about the possible nomination of former ministers Henrique Meirelles and Fernando Haddad to the Ministry of Finance.
The vice president-elect and coordinator of the transition team, Geraldo Alckmin, began to form the transition team by announcing the first members of the group. The team will have 31 technical groups in specific areas, but in a statement yesterday (8), when formalizing the transition office, Alckmin said that the nomination for the transition is not related to the occupation of positions in ministries.
Disposition
Regarding the proposed amendment to the Transition Constitution (PEC), which intends to remove up to R$ 175 billion from the federal spending ceiling for the 2023 Budget, Lula said he was confident of approval. According to the president-elect, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, showed their willingness to process the proposal in the meetings held today. It will be up to Alckmin to establish a schedule for the processing of the PEC with Lira and Pacheco.
For the future president, Congress must keep in mind that the beneficiaries of social programs are the population most in need. “There’s no point in saving money to pay interest to a banker,” he declared. “Health, Popular Pharmacy and Education are not expenses. They are investments”, he stressed, saying that these expenses cannot be cut in 2023.
“There was a lot of willingness from the Speakers of the House and Senate. Alckmin will sit with the presidents [das duas Casas] to talk about the PEC”, said Lula. He also said that he is committed to recovering the normal relationship between the institutions and that he seeks a peaceful relationship with the center.
Saying he does not know who will oppose the future government, Lula said that both the PT and Alckmin will have to “learn” to talk to the center to get support for the projects and other proposals that will be processed in Congress. “If it depends on me, day 2 [de janeiro] we are putting the work to work”, said Lula, adding that he wants the negotiations to take place without tensions or fights
