President says that his administration and the PT are to blame for the population not receiving information from his management and demands the hiring of digital media; Secom is led by Paulo Pimenta
The president (PT) harshly criticized his government’s communication this Friday (Dec 6, 2024). He said that there was a mistake on his part for not organizing interviews with journalists and demanded that a tender be held for digital media. The PT member stated that the issue is one of his concerns to resolve from 2025 because the population needs to know about the achievements of his administration.
“There is a mistake in the government on the issue of communication and I am obliged to make the necessary corrections so that people do not complain that they are not communicating well”, these.
Lula spoke via videoconference at the seminar held by the PT in Brasília entitled “The Brazilian reality and the challenges of the PT”. In the audience were the party president, Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of the Perseu Abramo Foundation, Paulo Okamotto, deputies, senators and elected mayors of the party.
“There is an error, a mistake on my part in communication. THE [secretário de Audiovisual, Ricardo] Stuckert He always says that I am the party’s greatest communicator, that I have to speak more. And the truth is that I haven’t organized the press conferences, they haven’t been organized. I love talking on the radio and from now on we need to do things the way they need to be done. Because it will not be our adversaries who will speak well of us”, he stated.
The PT member said it was his fault for the lack of more efficient digital communication in the government after 2 years in office. “I want to admit my guilt because to this day I am in government and to this day we have not managed to have a competitive digitalized press. We weren’t even able to make us have a deeper study on the digital issue and we didn’t even make a bid so that we could have a highly competitive digitalized press”, these.
At the end of August, Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency) revoked the R$ 197,753,736 tender that selected 4 digital communication companies to advise and manage the federal government’s social networks. Here is it (PDF – 604 kB).
The bidding had been suspended in July by the TCU (Federal Audit Court), which identified signs of fraud, based on an alleged leak of the bidders’ proposals. The reporting minister welcomed the suggestion. Read (PDF – 255 kB).
The technical area of the Court of Auditors alleged that a press vehicle published the results of the contest in encrypted form 1 day before the envelopes were opened. The bidding was led by the minister of Secom, Paulo Pimenta.
Since the beginning of Lula’s 3rd term, in 2023, there has been internal criticism that communication has not been effective. The PT member launched several social programs in the last 2 years, with the release of resources, but did not see his popularity increase. A change at Secom is considered for next year, when a ministerial reform should be promoted by the president.
SOLUTION: SIDÔNIO
Lula wants marketer Sidônio Palmeira to be closer to the day-to-day running of the government to give direction to Secom. Sidônio’s permanent move to Planalto has been discussed for months, but he always rejected the possibility because he wanted to continue running his company in Salvador (BA).
Even so, the professional is constantly in Brasília and helps define the language and content of advertising campaigns and statements. He collaborated, for example, with the production of , in which he announced the spending review package on November 27th. It is possible that, given the president’s appeals, Sidônio will have a position at Secom or even take over as secretary.
Lula demanded greater efficiency from PT members in publicizing the achievements of his mandate and said that this communication needs to have “head, trunk and limb speaking the same language throughout the day for many people”. The disarticulation of the government’s internal discourse, especially that of ministers, and allies is one of the main complaints about communication problems.
“This is something that we will have to take into account to resolve in the 2 years left until the end of my government. Even start bidding so that we have the digital issue taken very seriously, both by the government and by our party, our activists and our social movements”, said Lula.
The president stated that the internet is a “extraordinarily important instrument”, but which propagates a lot of distorted information about its government.
“The PT is to blame, my government is to blame. What we cannot allow at any time is that someone who thinks as the extreme right in our country thinks has more space on social media than us, has more information on the internet than us and is able to project their evils more than we can project the kindness we do”, these.
