Crises strengthen Temer as a negotiator.
The vice-president, who had been excluded from government decisions, was invited by Dilma to work alongside Ideli Salvatti in political coordination; he already participated in a meeting between the PT and PMDB parties promoted by the president on Monday.
Evam Sena_247, from Brasília – It has already been eight months of government. But it took the crisis within the allied base to reach threatening proportions, and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva advised President Dilma Rousseff to yield and invite Vice President Michel Temer to work on the political coordination of her government, along with Minister Ideli Salvatti (Institutional Relations).
The series of accusations in the Ministries of Transport, Agriculture, and Tourism, which shook the government's relationship with the PR and PMDB parties, strengthened Temer within the government. The invitation was extended by Dilma last Friday, the 12th. Yesterday, the president announced to ministers and allies that he will begin assisting in the political maneuvering, and the vice-president has already participated in a meeting with Dilma, Ideli, and leaders of the PMDB and PT parties.
Dilma and Lula met at the São Paulo air base last week, and the former president advised his successor to get closer to the PMDB party and bring Temer to the center of the Planalto Palace's decision-making process, even to "share responsibilities." And it wasn't just Lula who gave this warning. Dilma has been hearing this from interlocutors since the beginning of her term.
Until yesterday, Temer had been excluded from government decisions. The vice president had gained strength during the minimum wage vote in the Chamber of Deputies, when the PMDB voted unanimously with the government, but during the vote on the Forest Code in the Chamber, he received a call from then-Minister Antônio Palocci (Chief of Staff) and threats of dismissals of PMDB ministers if the party did not side with the Planalto Palace.
In the replacement of Palocci with Gleisi Hoffmann in the Civil House, Temer only found out after all the decisions and conversations had already taken place. Upon Luiz Sérgio's departure from the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, Temer expressed support for the name of the government leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Cândido Vaccarezza (PT-SP), but Dilma nominated Ideli Salvatti.
Upon Nelson Jobim's departure from the Ministry of Defense, who, despite being from the PMDB party, was considered "from the president's quota," Temer was considered as a replacement. However, the proposal did not resonate within the party, precisely because of the fear that, by holding both the vice-presidency and the ministry, Temer would become even more distanced from political maneuvering. The Workers' Party member Celso Amorim was chosen instead.
Points in Temer's political career contribute to his strengthening at this moment. Despite being on leave from the presidency of the PMDB, he controls the largest party in Dilma's base, on which she has become more dependent with the political crisis. Temer has already been president of the Chamber of Deputies three times, where the dissatisfaction of allied parties is most evident, with the paralysis of voting.
It wasn't just friendly fire that brought Dilma closer to Temer. The president took her time, but she also understood that excluding the vice-president from political decisions only benefits the opposition or the PMDB faction against the government. In advising Dilma, Lula wasn't only thinking about the need to calm the base, but also about securing political alliances for 2014, regardless of who the PT candidate might be.