President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) holds this Monday (20) the first meeting with government ministers of the year. The meeting was scheduled amid expectations about a ministerial reform.
Lula will receive the ministers at Granja do Torto, the official country house of the Presidency. The head of the Executive evaluates possible changes to meet demands from Centrão parties for more space on the Esplanada.
The first change was made in the government communications area. Lula appointed the publicist to the Presidency’s Social Communication Secretariat (Secom).
He took over from Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS), who is a licensed deputy. How to CNN showed, the now former minister.
Because of the ministerial meeting, ministers interrupted or brought forward the end of their vacations. This is the case of ministers Márcio Macêdo (General Secretariat), Marcos Amaro (Institutional Security Office) and Carlos Lupi (Social Security) who had their returns formalized in the Official Gazette of the Union on Thursday (16).
Previously, some of the ministers had also come to Brasília in advance, after Lula demanded the presence of the entire ministerial team at the event in memory of the two years since the extremist acts of January 8, 2023.
Change in government
Sidônio’s arrival was already agreed upon when the case involving Pix made the government retreat from its decision to expand payment supervision. The new minister was appointed mainly to reformulate the government’s communication and strategies to combat disinformation.
With the appointment of Sidônio, who worked on Lula’s presidential campaign in 2022, Lula expects a new phase of government in the last two years of his term.
The Esplanada currently has 39 ministers. In addition to the PT itself, which is in charge of 12 departments, ten other parties (PSD, MDB, Republicans, PSB, União Brasil, PC do B, PP, PDT, PSOL and Rede) have representatives on the ministerial team.
Members of centrist parties complain about the government’s lack of coordination with Congress and demand more space in the government.
