The president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, affirmed this Friday that he has 80% of his ministers “in his head” but assured that he is in no hurry to announce the names because he is still negotiating the composition of the government with other parties.
The progressive leader also said that it is most probable that he will increase the number of ministries from the current 23 to close to 30, since his intention is to have a cabinet similar to the one at the end of his second term as president of Brazil (2007-2010). ).
“After they give me the diploma as president-elect of Brazil on December 12, I will start announcing the ministers, but it is not for them to worry because I have 80% of the ministry in my head,” he said at a press conference.
Lula explained that he continues to negotiate the composition of the cabinet with the ten political parties that helped him win the current president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, in the October elections, as well as with other center and right-wing parties that did not support him “but are important in Congress.
He said that next week he will talk with leaders of small parties in his coalition and with representatives of some sectors of society, such as the indigenous people, to continue assembling the cabinet.
Regarding the Ministry of Economy, for which ex-presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, one of his main collaborators, is speculated to be the main option, he assured that his intention is to name someone “who has the face” of his first term.
He recalled that in his first terms he managed to make Brazil register its highest economic growth in more than thirty years and elevate the country to the sixth largest economy in the world.
He clarified, however, that his Minister of Economy will have autonomy but that it will be the head of state who will make political and economic decisions, “because I was the one who won the elections and I know what is good for the people and what is good to the market”.