Dilma completes her reform and continues as the "cleaner."
In her recent cabinet reshuffle, the president imposed the names she wanted, forced the parties to bend to her will, and resisted suggestions from the parties; the clearest example was César Borges, announced yesterday as the new Minister of Transport; before deciding on his name, Dilma called the leader of the PR party, Congressman Anthony Garotinho (RJ), to confirm if there were any impositions; Manoel Dias, who took over the Ministry of Labor, was also her decision, aligned with former minister Carlos Lupi.
247 – Despite being criticized first for making ministerial changes aimed at her 2014 reelection, and then for favoring parties harmed by the purge carried out through the 2011 ministerial reform, President Dilma Rousseff actually made her allies bow to her in the recent changes. The names of the new ministers were her choice, even if they did not please their parties.
According to columnist Ilimar Franco of Globo, "a member of the government's inner circle explains: since President Dilma embraced the 'clean sweep' approach, she cannot take any risks and needs to choose ministers who can withstand scrutiny." In 2011, due to allegations of irregularities in various ministries, seven ministers resigned.
In the case of the PR party, the first attack received by the press was that the replacement of Minister Paulo Sérgio Passos with the vice-president of Banco do Brasil, César Borges, in the Ministry of Transport, was seen as the president giving back control of a ministry to the first party excluded in the previous purge. The issue was discussed between her, the president of the PR and former Minister of Transport, Alfredo Nascimento (dismissed two years ago), and the party leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Anthony Garotinho (RJ), but no name was chosen.
The decision ultimately came from Dilma herself, who, after choosing César Borges, called Anthony Garotinho to find out if there were any objections. The choice was made after the agreement had been reached with Nascimento and Antônio Carlos Rodrigues, from the party's national leadership. According to a note in the Painel column this Monday, the 1st, Garotinho reiterated his request that the minister be a congressman, but did not impose a veto.
The other changes were in the Ministry of Agriculture, where Mendes Ribeiro (PMDB-RS) left due to illness, and Antônio Andrade (PMDB-MG) took over. In Civil Aviation, Wagner Bittencourt (independent) left his post, replaced by Moreira Franco (PMDB-RJ) – who is leaving the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. For the Ministry of Labor, the president chose Manoel Dias (PDT-SC) – a decision aligned with former minister Carlos Lupi – who replaced Brizola Neto (PDT-RJ), whose name was not approved by the party.
At the ministers' swearing-in ceremony, the president justified the changes as a necessity to strengthen the coalition among those who support the government. "I've learned that in a coalition you have to value the people who are with you, these partners in the struggle, who are companions who accompany us on a daily journey, so they have to be with us, in good times and bad," she stated.