The president of the Niterói Academic School, who paid homage to the president () in this year’s parade, was received twice at Palácio do Planalto, months before last Sunday’s presentation (15).
Wallace Palhares was received by the Chief Minister of Institutional Relations, (PT), on the 2nd and 16th of October.
In parallel, the samba school was visited twice by the first lady, . According to the first lady’s official schedule, the first visit was made on October 6th. The group’s samba theme, “Lula, the Brazilian worker”, was only released by the school on October 21st.
On her first visit, Janja was accompanied by ministers Luciana Santos (Science and Technology) and Anielle Franco (Racial Equality). They then participated in the official launching ceremony of the 2027 Ocean Decade Conference in Brazil.
More recently, on February 6th, Janja attended the technical rehearsals of Acadêmicos de Niterói, in Sapucaí. At the time, there was still an expectation that the First Lady would parade on the last float, which ended.
At the time, she was again accompanied by Anielle. Later, last week, Lula in the parade that would honor him.
As shown by Sheetallied with the potential for this to bring negative repercussions to the president and ammunition for the opposition. People close to the PT member were against the first lady’s participation and said they were relieved with her withdrawal.
Gleisi’s official agenda states that the October 2nd meeting with Palhares was attended by the school’s advisor, Márcia Abdala, and trumpeter Fabiano Duarte, a PT activist known for playing at events supporting the party and who participated in the school’s parade.
Also in accordance with the transparency platform, the meeting with representatives was focused on contributions with proposals and suggestions for the public administration’s decision-making process “regarding government strategies and/or public policy”.
When contacted, the Institutional Relations Secretariat reported that the minister received a courtesy visit from the school president on October 2, in which Palhares invited her to participate in the parade that would honor the president.
At the meeting on October 16, the minister received councilor Anderson Pipico, honorary president of Acadêmicos de Niterói, and federal deputy Lindbergh Farias (PT-RJ), accompanied by Wallace Palhares. On the occasion, Pipico and Palhares presented the video with the school’s samba to the minister.
The department is responsible for the government’s political coordination, above all, with the other Powers.
Values
In total, more than R$8 million was transferred to the school, including contributions from the municipal, state and federal levels.
When asked about the amounts transferred, the State government informed that it transferred R$40 million to Liesa (Liga Independente das Escolas de Samba). The entity is exclusively responsible for the management and application of these resources, including the distribution among those in the Special Group and the execution of infrastructure services in Marquês de Sapucaí.
Embratur, in turn, said that within the scope of the technical cooperation agreement signed with Liesa, with the intervention of the Ministry of Culture, it allocated R$ 1 million to each of the 12 associations in the Special Group. The company adds that the resources were transferred to Liesa, who was responsible for implementing the transfer to the Grupo Especial samba schools.
Rio City Hall transferred R$ 25.8 million in total to the Special Group associations, through Riotur. Like all others, Acadêmicos de Niterói received the amount of R$2.1 million.
Neltur (Niterói Leisure and Tourism Company), linked to Niterói City Hall, was responsible for transferring R$4 million to the school. In a note sent to Sheetthe company said that financial support for samba schools in Niterói follows clear and equal rules for everyone, based exclusively on the category in which each school parades.
“This means that the value of the transfer has no relation to the school, the theme, or the tribute to the plot. To offer total transparency, the division is made by groups: for example, in the case of Grupo Especial do Rio, both Unidos do Viradouro and Acadêmicos de Niterói received exactly the same amount (R$4 million)”, he says.
Academicos de Niterói ended up being . In the calculation on Wednesday (18), the group scored just 264.6 points, returning to the Gold Group. The defeat comes a year after the group ascended to the Special Group.
In addition to saluting the PT member’s history, Sunday’s presentation also criticized the former president (PL), portrayed as the clown Bozo on the avenue.
A, also from Niterói. She took to the avenue a tribute to drum master Ciça, who has 15 years of history in the association.
