President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the five prime ministers of the future government. The names were presented at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) in Brasília, where the transition office is installed.
According to Lula, some names were anticipated so that they could assemble the teams. “I need some people to start working to set up the structure of government and for the government to start working,” he said.
The future ministers will be the following:
Chief of Staff: Rui Costa, Governor of Bahia until December
Finance: Fernando Haddad, former Minister of Education and former mayor of São Paulo
Defense: José Múcio Monteiro, former Minister of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and former Minister of Institutional Relations
Justice and Public Security: Flávio Dino, senator elected by Maranhão and former governor of the state
Foreign Relations: Mauro Vieira, former Chancellor and Ambassador of Brazil in Croatia
The other ministers will be announced next week, after the graduation ceremony for Lula and vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin. Originally, the team of the future government would only be announced after diplomacy, but Lula decided to anticipate some names after approval in the Senate of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the Transition??
After announcing the names, Lula said that all the ministers, so far, are men and promised more diversity in the presentation of the next positions, starting next week. “There will come a time when you will see more women than men and many people of African descent,” she declared.
The advance of the names intends to break deadlocks in the Ministry of Defense and speed up the negotiations in the processing of the PEC of the Transition in the Chamber of Deputies. Last week, Lula said that he had “80% of the ministry in his head”, but informed that the definitive assembly of the team depended on negotiations??
In some cases, future holders have begun to visit the ministries they will lead. Yesterday (8) in the morning, Haddad met with the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes.
Regarding the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Lula said that he intends to dismember the portfolio in the future, but that, at first, Flávio Dino will concentrate the two portfolios. According to him, it will be up to the future minister to restructure the careers of the Federal Highway Police and reduce political interference in the security forces.
In a quick speech after being confirmed in office, Dino informed that he had nominated Lula for delegate Andrei Rodrigues for the post of general director of the Federal Police. According to the future minister, Rodrigues has experience in investigating the Amazon, participated in dialogues with states and municipalities and acted in the security arrangements for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Regarding the nomination of future military commanders, Lula informed that the new Minister of Defense will talk to the names probed to make the invitations. Upon leaving the CCBB, Múcio informed that he intends to meet with the current president Jair Bolsonaro, the Minister of Defense, Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, and the current commanders of the Armed Forces next week.
