Bolsonaro is preparing Lula's future government.

Drinking cold coffee and still dreaming of a coup against Lula's inauguration, Bolsonaro is appointing friends to public positions with mandates, packing the future government with allies who can guarantee him some form of power, influence, and protection.

Some nominations depend on Senate approval and could be blocked there, while others could be reversed by Lula, but that will be difficult and exhausting.

On Friday, November 18th, the nominations of the Minister of the Government Secretariat, Célio Faria Junior, and the Special Advisor to the Presidency, João Henrique Nascimento de Freitas, to the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency of the Republic were published in an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette. They will have three-year terms, serving in their positions for almost the entire Lula administration.

On the 11th, seven directors of regulatory agencies were appointed, positions that also guarantee mandates for their leaders. Alexandre Reis Siqueira Freire was appointed to the board of directors of Anatel, filling the vacancy resulting from the end of Emmanoel Campelo de Sousa Pereira's term. Albert Furtado de Vasconcelos Neto and Caio César Faria Leôncio were appointed to the board of directors of Antaq - National Agency for Waterway Transportation. Lucas Asfor Rocha Lima and Felipe Fernandes Queirós were appointed to the board of directors of ANTT - National Agency for Land Transportation. Ronaldo Jorge da Silva Lima was reappointed to the position of director of ANM - National Mining Agency. Miriam Wimmer was reappointed to the position of Director of the Board of Directors of the National Data Protection Authority.

All these nominations depend on Senate approval. If they are not approved this year, Lula may withdraw the nominations and propose other names. Although regulatory agencies are theoretically independent of the government, their leaders have enough power to obstruct public policies of the Executive branch.

Another recipient of a mandate was Gilson Machado, the accordion player who brightens up meetings at the Alvorada Palace. He was reappointed as president of Embratur for a four-year term.
Bolsonaro also appointed nine members to the National Education Council on November 8th. Among them was Elizabeth Nunes Guedes, sister of Minister Paulo Guedes and head of the association of private colleges.

Another nominee is Leila Soares de Souza Perussolo, sister-in-law of the re-elected governor of Roraima, the Bolsonaro supporter Antonio Denarium (PP). Ilona Maria Lustosa Becskehazy Ferrão is a militant of the ideological wing of Bolsonarism. She went to the Ministry of Education during Abraham Weintraub's administration and was dismissed after he fell, being replaced by Mauro Ribeiro, a friend of the pastors. Now she's going to the National Education Council (CNE).

Other nominees include Paulo Fossati, Luciane Bisognin, Henrique Sartori de Almeida Prado (linked to Michel Temer), Mauro Luiz Rabelo, and Marcia Teixeira Sebastiani.

Sixteen nominees for Brazilian embassy positions are awaiting confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The incoming government wants to replace at least five of these nominees, including Helio Vitor Ramos Filho, who is nominated for the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires.

With 40 days left in his term and Bolsonaro eager for appointments, more are likely to follow.

It's as Lula said: if he had even a shred of republican spirit, he would have provided a Brazilian Air Force plane to take the president-elect to COP27 in Egypt. And he wouldn't be making appointments in the twilight of his government.

This metaphor is flawed: his government lacked enlightenment. Let's put it this way, in dispelling the darkness of his administration.

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