O Minister of Labor and Employment, Luiz Marinho (PT), decided that he will remain in the federal government until the end of 2026 and will not contest next year’s elections. The stay was a direct request from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), according to sources.
In early December, Lula met with Marinho behind closed doors and asked for him to remain, arguing that the government will lose many of its ministers in 2026, who will be unable to compete in the election.
It was agreed that the PT will launch the candidacy of the current president of the SMABC (ABC Metalworkers Union), Moisés Selerges Júnior, for federal deputy, in Marinho’s place.
In the 2022 elections, Marinho received 156,202 votes, being the 34th most voted in São Paulo. The minister concentrates his electorate especially in São Bernardo, the city of which he was mayor, and in ABC, and could transfer his votes to Moisés in the evaluation of PT operators.
The idea is also to collect the results of the Minister in Labor and Employment. The unemployment rate in Brazil reached 5.2% in the quarter ending in November 2025, the lowest level ever recorded since the beginning of the Continuous PNAD historical series (2012).
