Marcelo Auler: Coup government creates rebellion at Fiocruz

Marcelo Auler, on his blog - The news that Michel Temer's coup government has decided to appoint the second most voted candidate in the November internal elections as president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz (2017/2020) is seen as a coup within the institution and has provoked an immediate reaction. The information regarding the selection of Tânia Cremonini Araújo-Jorge, disregarding a tradition followed for years, was published on Thursday (December 29th) in Ilimar Franco's Panorama Político column in O Globo. Even during the recess, on the morning of Friday, December 30th, there will be a meeting of the Fiocruz Deliberative Council composed of the institution's president and the directors of the units. A mobilization of workers is occurring in parallel, even without the Union having called an assembly. There will be a vigil awaiting the Council's pronouncement.

The decision by civil engineer Ricardo Barros, who heads the Health Ministry in Michel Temer's coup government, demonstrates that the group that occupied the Presidential Palace with the impeachment coup will not respect the democratic processes that have existed for decades. At Fiocruz, the election of the president was instituted shortly after Sérgio Arouca's administration (1985/1988). Barros, probably following orders from the Presidential Palace, is generating a new crisis in a government that is already faltering. In seven months, it has already lost six ministers and has several others threatened by possible involvement in corruption cases. Now it is attracting the ire of Fiocruz employees and academic institutions that defend the electoral process.

Minister playing with fire – In the words of a Fiocruz official, either the first-place candidate, Nísia Verônica Trindade Lima (2.556 votes as first choice – 59,7% – and 534 votes as second choice), is appointed, respecting the process that has been in place since the late 1980s, or there will be a crisis. 4.415 employees participated in the election, representing 82,1% of the total. Tânia Cremonini Araújo-Jorge received 1695 votes as first choice (39,6%) and 656 votes as second choice. “The second-place candidate will not lead Fiocruz. The minister is playing with fire. An alternative to the second-place candidate at Fiocruz will not lead the institution. The minister does not understand Fiocruz. The minister doesn't know what he's dealing with; he doesn't know our democratic, historical character. There has never been an intervention of this kind, except during the dictatorship and the Collor era, and we don't believe that will happen now. The resistance will be great, and external mobilizations, from parliamentarians, academies, the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, and so on, are already taking place,” warns the leader.

A downward spiral of rhetoric – What has surprised everyone is the actions of scientist and educator Tânia Cremonini, a researcher at Fiocruz since 1983. After all, she herself made it clear in the presentation of her candidacy:

“I am never neutral, I always take a stand. I am not one to remain silent or to omit myself, and I am known for never politicizing my actions in science and technology. I ran in two elections at the IOC with other colleagues, and after the elections we worked together on actions and institutional unity.”

If she wasn't used to politicizing her actions, now it seems she's been bitten by the political bug and has thrown her campaign rhetoric out the window when she spoke of democratic, participatory management and strong internal support to carry Fiocruz's mission forward.

“I have credibility because I acted decisively during my tenure as director on three essential cornerstones of Fiocruz: democratic and participatory management, social commitment, and the creation of mechanisms that ensure its efficiency and managerial effectiveness. And I strongly defended the other two cornerstones of Fiocruz in recent internal congresses: being a public and state institution and remaining integrated, without fragmentation. I argued that Fiocruz needs to be very united and cohesive to implement changes of the proposed magnitude, fulfilling its mission and vision. And that, for this, we should not rush into making decisions without maturity and strong internal support.”

If she accepts the nomination – and according to reports, she was in Brasília negotiating it – Tânia Cremonini will not have the support of most of Fiocruz, including many of her voters, as some members of the institution predict. The institution's democratic experience will fight for the nomination of the most voted candidate, Nísia Lima, a PhD in sociology and Fiocruz employee for three decades.

After the military dictatorship, the first option on the list was only not followed by the government on one occasion. This occurred during the intervention of the Collor de Mello government, as one of the current directors explains:

“He intervened and we had to negotiate. We didn't put anyone from the list in place, but a researcher from Fiocruz, in combination, at the time, with Minister Alceni Guerra. When the Collor government ended, we went back to the list. It was already Itamar Franco. The first two on the previous list were out of the country. Two years had already passed. That's why the third one was included. But it was something totally negotiated with the first and second on the list, who couldn't take the position because they were abroad. From then on, it's always the first one who is appointed. There has never been another alternative.”

In the view of this director of Fiocruz, the civil engineer Barros, who is the Minister of Health, is "irascible and authoritarian":

“The minister, I would say, is an irascible person and is absolutely authoritarian. Unfortunately, he found in the second candidate some alternative to interfere in Fiocruz. Interpret that however you want. Fiocruz has always been immune to political appointments, it has never been involved in wrongdoing. Apparently, and unfortunately we have seen this, this second candidate, the researcher Tânia de Araújo Jorge, must have made some kind of arrangement. There is no reason for him to nominate the second candidate because she has a better project. That doesn't exist. She is a candidate who will not have the support of any Fiocruz director, she will not be able to govern under any circumstances,” he predicts.