Brazil elections 2022: Lula da Silva promises 10 new ministries, Bolsonaro, 4

The two leading candidates for the Brazilian presidential palace, former president convicted for corruption, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party – PT) and president Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party – PL), intend to increase the number of ministries in the next government.

PT has already indicated that it would create at least ten new portfolios. The current president has mentioned four.

In Lula da Silva’s case, discounting the divisions, at least eight new ministries would be added to the 23 existing today. In addition, da Silva indicated that he might bring back the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade. In this case, nine portfolios would be added.

The additions are less numerous than the ministries announced so far because there are overlaps. For example, da Silva has already talked about creating the ministries of Women, Racial Equality, and Human Rights.

These areas are under the Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights today. In practice, the transformation of one ministry into three is the addition of two portfolios to the total.

The statements about creating portfolios were given in public appointments. Poder360 lists below the ministries already mentioned by Lula and the occasions when the candidate mentioned the possible new portfolios:

• Indigenous Peoples – announced at a rally in Brasília on April 12, 2022. Lula da Silva discussed creating a portfolio for “indigenous issues” and mentioned “native peoples”. The candidate said: “If we created the Ministry of Racial Equality, the Ministry of Human Rights, the Ministry of Fisheries, why can’t we create a ministry for indigenous issues?”
• Racial Equality – the candidate mentioned the portfolio on May 5 in Campinas (São Paulo). He said: “I will come back, and I will create the Ministry of Racial Equality, the Ministry of Human Rights”.
• Human Rights – the candidate talked about creating the portfolio in the same speech in which he mentioned Racial Equality. Today there is a more comprehensive portfolio on the subject (Women, Family and Human Rights).
• Culture – Da Silva said he would recreate the portfolio on May 11 when he spoke in Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais) on May 11. The PT candidate declared: “They did away with the Ministry of Culture. We will recreate it”.
• Planning – the PT candidate mentioned the portfolio in an interview with UOL on July 27. When asked if Treasury and Planning would be dismembered from the Ministry of Economy, he said: “Obviously, a country the size of Brazil cannot do without a Ministry of Planning”.
• Treasury – the signaling was in the same interview in which he mentioned the Planning Ministry.
• Small and Medium Enterprise – Da Silva discussed creating the portfolio on August 17 in a meeting with sector representatives. He declared: “I don’t know if the Ministry for Small and Medium Enterprise is working. It will have to work”.
• Public Security – the candidate said he would create the portfolio on August 30 after meeting with governors and former allied governors. “We are proposing the creation of the Ministry of Public Security without any interference in state policy,” said the candidate.
• Fishing – Lula da Silva mentioned the creation of the portfolio in a speech in Belém (Pará) on September 2. “We will recreate the Ministry of Fisheries,” he said.
• Women – the candidate mentioned the portfolio on August 18, during a rally in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais). He said: “We are going to rebuild the Ministry of Women”.

Da Silva made a more subtle indication about the possibility of recreating the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade.

He mentioned businessman Luiz Fernando Furlan, who was in charge of the portfolio in his first government at Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) in August.

“There is a figure that I haven’t seen in a while, but I haven’t forgotten the extraordinary role he played in my government, Luiz Furlan, who was my Minister of Industry and Commerce,” said da Silva. Those present applauded.

“I said, ‘I don’t want a businessman in the ministry; II want a peddler. In other words, you will travel the world; you will put the things of Brazil under your arm and sell the things of Brazil, and in my opinion, it was an extraordinary success”, declared the PT president.

There may be more ministries in addition to these in an eventual election of the former president. Lula said at the end of July that he would recreate the portfolios he had in his government.

BOLSONARO’S ESPLANADE

Jair Bolsonaro has also talked about increasing the number of ministries. With the four additions already publicly mentioned, there would be a total of 27 ministries. Bolsonaro has promised to recreate up to three ministries if reelected for another term. But he has already talked about four possible new portfolios.

The most promised portfolio is the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which would be dismembered from the Ministry of Economy – a body that has already been reduced and gave rise to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

• Industry and Commerce – In events with sector representatives, Bolsonaro has promised to reestablish the ministry more than once. In May, he stated that the idea was “mature” and could be implemented by the end of the year. At the time, he said, without giving details, that the matter was being led by the president of the House of Representatives, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).
• Public Security – the area of Public Security is under the Ministry of Justice -which in 2019 formed one of the “super ministries” and was given to former judge Sergio Moro (Union Brazil today, no party at the time). Bolsonaro said he considered positive the idea of splitting the two areas again.
• Sports – in February, Bolsonaro stated that Sports, currently a secretariat of the Ministry of Citizenship, should have “ministry status”. In January 2021, the president thought of recreating the ministry and that of Fisheries after the elections for the presidency of the House and Senate, but the idea did not move forward.
• Fishing – Like Sports, Fishing is currently a special secretariat. It is linked to the Ministry of Agriculture. Bolsonaro spoke for the first time about making the area a ministry in January 2021. The close relationship with former secretary Jorge Seif, always praised by Bolsonaro, weighed for the head of the Executive to consider reviving the ministry.

In the 2018 presidential campaign, Bolsonaro promised to reduce the number of ministries to 15. Since the last elections, however, he has opened the government to the entry of members of center parties, starting with the recreation of the Ministry of Communications given to Fábio Faria (PP-RN), then affiliated with Gilberto Kassab’s PSD.

“[We intend] to create at most three more to administer our country better. The size of Brazil justifies doing this,” Bolsonaro said on June 6.

The latest PowerData poll, released on August 31, shows Lula with 44% of voting intentions for the first round. Bolsonaro has 36%.

With information from Poder360