Bolsonaro Invites Regina Duarte to Replace Alvim as Head of Culture Secretariat

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro invited renowned actress Regina Duarte on Friday afternoon to head up the federal government’s Secretariat of Culture. The invitation was made by phone, on a call from the president himself. According to Bolsonaro’s allies, Regina is to reply within the next few days.

Regina Duarte was invited to fill  the vacancy left by Roberto Alvim, fired on Friday after copying sentences from a Nazi speech in an official statement. José Paulo Soares Martins holds the interim position until the new secretary is selected.

A defender of Bolsonaro’s government, the actress is a friend of First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro. Regina is one of the counselors of ‘Pátria Voluntária’, Michelle’s program to promote the practice of volunteering.

In August, Regina was in Brasília for a ‘Pátria Voluntária’ meeting. “Society must assume its contributing role for a growing country, for a country that evolves and generates more chances and more opportunities for the new generations. In this respect, volunteering can fill a very important space,” she said at the time.

According to the UOL website, the actress gave an interview to Radio Jovem Pan. Regina did not make a final decision on the invitation but said she does not consider herself ready to take over the portfolio.

“I don’t feel ready. I think public administration is a little complicated. A portfolio like culture, so much more. This is an immense and continental country, it has many artists, groups, creations, we will want to embrace everything. I’m very concerned that I’m not prepared,” admitted Regina, who also said “to have to think about things that she didn’t imagine she would be thinking about now”.

Fellow ministers also championed the name of the Audiovisual Secretary, André Sturm, as an immediate solution for the position. The government grilled Sturm in December when he was announced to take over the Audiovisual Secretariat.

The fact that he had been João Doria’s secretary of culture in the São Paulo government weighed against André Sturm. Sturm was invited to the federal government by Roberto Alvim, during a lunch at the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), last December. He is expected to replace Katiane Gouvêa, who held the office for two weeks.

In addition to Sturm, Josias Teófilo, director of ‘O jardim das aflições’, about guru Olavo de Carvalho, was also listed for the position. This is the second time that Teófilo’s name features as an option for a government position. The first time was for the Audiovisual area, taken over by Sturm last December.

Love for Israel

Bolsonaro considered Alvim’s stay in office unsustainable and also considered the recording “unfortunate”. To allies, the president justified the resignation by the “love for Israel”, as the columnist Bela Megale showed.

“He said he had to resign out of love and respect for Israel. The issue of Israel is very dear to the president. He told us that he could not allow wounds that will never be healed to be exposed in his government,” described Deputy Ottoni de Paula, who was in the president’s office at the time of his resignation.

Alvim’s resignation came after he copied a quote from Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, in a statement. The video was released to announce the National Arts Award, a project worth a total of over R$20 million.

In addition, the announcement features as musical background the opera “Lohengrin”, by Richard Wagner, the German composer celebrated by Nazism. The similarity between Alvim’s speech and that of the Nazi minister was first identified by the “Jornalistas Livres” (“Free Journalists”) portal.