Dilma: Minister will investigate irregularities in the Ministry.
After the face-to-face meeting between the Minister of Transport and the President, everything seems fine: Nascimento himself will investigate the irregularities in his department; the Presidential Palace issues a statement informing the public that he will remain in his position; and what about the government's image?
Rodolfo Borges_247, from Brasília – Alfredo Nascimento's (PR) situation at the head of the Ministry of Transport is not good, but it no longer seems so bad after President Dilma Rousseff publicly expressed her support for her minister. Furthermore, on the president's instructions, Nascimento himself will investigate the Ministry's alleged wrongdoing. "The government expresses its confidence in Minister Alfredo Nascimento. The minister is responsible for conducting the investigation into the allegations against the Ministry of Transport," said Dilma in a statement released by the Presidential Secretariat of Social Communication.
The president had already been pressing Nascimento's team about the significant increase in budgets for projects under the Ministry's responsibility. Faced with the imminent opening of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI), which the opposition began to organize in the Senate this Monday, Dilma had the opportunity to get rid of yet another minister inherited from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government. But, to the general surprise of the nation, she decided to keep him in office.
The reasons leading Dilma to keep Nascimento in his position are still unclear, but by doing so, the president risks further damaging her government. The National Congress only goes into recess on July 14th, and the opposition is mobilizing to summon the minister to clarify the situation. The collection of signatures to establish a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) has also begun. "Due to a lack of sufficient numbers, we were unable to establish the Palocci CPI. Now we must evaluate the possibilities of reinstating the archived DNIT CPI," wrote the PSDB leader in the Senate, Senator Alvaro Dias, on his microblog.
Alfredo Nascimento is the third minister in a row to appear in the newspapers for less than flattering reasons in recent weeks. While the Minister of Science and Technology, Aloizio Mercadante, and even the former Chief of Staff, Antonio Palocci, enjoyed government support due to their PT (Workers' Party) affiliation, Nascimento lacks even that. So what kept him in office?
For those who were alarmed by Nascimento's strength in the government, the president of the PTB party, Roberto Jefferson, reminded them on his personal blog that Dilma is not in as comfortable a position as it seems. "In a coalition presidential system, it's not easy to remove pieces from the board. Sure, Rondeau fell, Pagot paid the price, but Nascimento should rise from the ashes, like a phoenix. It's part of the game," he wrote.
The support of Nascimento's PR party is worth 41 deputies to the government, which has 311 of the 513 seats in the House. News about Dilma's swift action in ordering the removal of the top ministers without even consulting her minister did not sit well with the PR party. With the president's decision to keep the minister, the removal of the top officials from the Ministry of Transport, including José Francisco das Neves, CEO of Valec, and Luís Antônio Pagot, Director-General of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), is expected to become formal dismissals in the coming days.