The leader of the Government in the Chamber, (PT-CE), announced this Saturday (April 11, 2026) that it accepted the president’s invitation (PT) to take over the SRI (Institutional Relations Secretariat). The inauguration is scheduled for Tuesday (April 14, 2025).
“At the invitation of President Lula, I inform you that I have accepted the mission and next Tuesday (14), I will take office as minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations”wrote Guimarães.
The congressman replaces (PT), who left command of the department at the end of March to compete for a seat in the Senate for Paraná in the 2026 elections. Leaving the position 6 months before the election is a requirement of the Electoral Court.
Since Gleisi’s departure, the department was led on an interim basis by executive secretary Marcelo Almeida Costa. Lula took a while to hit the hammer because he considered that the chosen name needed to be completely trustworthy, given the strategic nature of the ministry for governability in the final months of his mandate.
Guimarães is a lawyer, 68 years old and close to Lula. He coordinated PT’s presidential campaigns in 1989 and 2002. Over the last few years, he has built a good relationship with Centrão leaders.
Guimarães’ move to the ministry opens a new gap: the government will need to choose a new leader in the Chamber.
The challenges of Guimarães
The first test will be the end of the 6 x 1 round. Guimarães himself has already led a political uproar even before taking office.
On Tuesday (April 7, 2026), the president of the Chamber, (Republicanos-PB), stated that the government would no longer send the bill urgently to deal with the end of the 6×1 scale, saying that he had received this signal from Guimarães himself. The Planalto Palace denied it.
The following day, Lula stated in an interview with ICL News that he would send the project that week, which has not materialized so far.
The other imbroglio is the veto of the so-called Dosimetry PL. The President of the Senate, (União-AP), called a Congress session for April 30th with only one item on the agenda: Lula’s total veto of the project that changed the calculation of the sentences of those convicted of the attacks of January 8th, 2023.
If the veto is overturned, the decision on possible changes to sentences will be made by the Federal Supreme Court.
