President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL-SP), this Monday (20), and invited him to occupy the position of chief minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, replacing Márcio Macêdo, who has been in the role since the beginning of the government, in January 2023.
The announcement was made in an official statement from Palácio do Planalto. The exchange will be formalized in the next edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU).
The General Secretariat of the Presidency is the ministry responsible for dialogue and dialogue between the government and civil society organizations and social movements. At the meeting in which Boulos received the invitation to the portfolio, Márcio Macedo, minister Gleisi Hoffmann, from the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, and ministers Rui Costa, from the Civil House, and Sidônio Palmeira, from the Secretariat of Social Communication, were present.
Appointed General Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Guilherme Boulos, aged 43, has a political trajectory focused on urban activism. In the new position, one of the challenges in the political articulation of the federal government will be to serve as a bridge between Palácio do Planalto, social movements and civil society.
Biography
Boulos was born in São Paulo, more precisely in the Pinheiros region, on June 19, 1982. He was the youngest son of infectious disease doctors and university professors Maria Ivete and Marcos, Guilherme Boulos.
His first years of study were in private schools. When he was in high school, he asked his parents to transfer him to a public school.
His interest in politics ended up leading him to join the student movement at the age of 15.
At the Fernão Dias Paes State School, he created a student union, participated in protests against the management and carried out literacy work for young people and adults in communities in the capital.
He entered the philosophy course at USP in 2000. He specialized in clinical psychology at PUC, and became a master in psychiatry at USP. In his professional life he was also a public school teacher and writer, having published the books “Why do we occupy?”; “Which side are you on?”; and “Without Fear of the Future”.
Social movement and politics
At the age of 19, Boulos went to live in an occupation of the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) – a group of which he would become a leader, dedicating himself for decades to the fight for decent housing and urban reform. It was there that he met his partner, Natália Szermeta, with whom he had two daughters: Sofia and Laura.
Affiliated to the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), he gained national notoriety when he was a candidate for President of the Republic in 2018, at just 35 years old. He ran twice for Mayor of São Paulo, in 2020 and 2024.
He was elected federal deputy in 2022, with more than 1 million votes, becoming not only the most voted candidate in the state, but also the second most voted candidate in the entire country.
