Brazil’s Education Minister to be Sued for Comparing Lula and Dilma to “Drogas”

By Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In another episode of what has become a Brazilian soap opera, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub will be sued for comparing former presidents Lula and Dilma Rousseff to the 39 kilograms of cocaine seized on a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane this week.

The lawsuit will be brought by the Workers’ Party (PT), as announced by its president, Federal Deputy Gleisi Hoffmann, on Thursday, June 27th.

Gleisi Hoffmann said the minister “will be sued for the insults directed against Dilma Rousseff and Lula” just hours after Weintraub used social networks to unleash a “joke” over the arrest of the military officer who was apprehended with drugs in Spain on the FAB plane that secured President Jair Bolsonaro’s trip.

“In the past, the presidential plane has carried even more ‘drogas’. Does anyone know Lula or Dilma’s weight?” joked the head of the Ministry of Education (MEC), causing a stir and even climbing to Twitter trending topics. [The Portuguese word “droga” literally means “drug” but is also slang for “loser”.]

“You accuse others of being what you are: a ‘droga’ (loser) on Brazilian education. So you can expect us to sue you. You’ll answer in court for what you said about Lula and Dilma. We are going to start with a complaint in the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and even in the Ethics Committee of the presidency, which, although contaminated, I hope will fulfill its role and investigate and assess what you have said”, said Gleisi Hoffmann in a plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies.

The deputy also described Weintraub as a “disqualified and immoral minister, who is making ungraceful and impolite tweets.” “This government needs to pull itself together. People are going hungry, people are unemployed, Brazil is sinking, and these people are making the mess they are making,” concluded the leftist, who endorsed the decision to file suit against the minister. “Abraham Weintraub is not up to the task. He behaves like a kid,” Gleisi wrote on Twitter.

Other left-wing politicians have also commented on the subject on the Internet. “You are despicable and a disgrace to the MEC, the education workers and the rest of the country,” wrote the minority leader in the Chamber, Jandira Feghali (PCB). “Minister Weintraub shows, once again, that he has no manners and no respect. He jokes about a dire fact: a presidential plane carrying drugs to another country, which means international drug trafficking. It’s a joke with no humor, with no respect, with no sense,” added deputy Túlio Gadêlha (PDT), the minority’s deputy leader.

Founder of the right of center political party Novo, João Amoêdo asked Weintraub to apologize. “Minister, do not engage in wrongdoing, apologize. Let’s work for education and Brazilians, with the attitude that is expected of a minister of State,” Amôedo wrote.

Abraham Weintraub, in turn, did not comment on the matter again.