Health Minister Mandetta Did Not Accept Secretary’s Resignation Letter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, said on Wednesday afternoon, April 15th, that he and the secretaries who assist him joined the Ministry together and will leave it together.

Mandetta made this statement during a press conference with the Ministry’s executive secretary, João Gabbardo, and the Health Surveillance Secretary, Wanderson de Oliveira.

Earlier on Wednesday, Wanderson de Oliveira had resigned because of Mandetta’s likely dismissal from the Ministry as a result of differences with President Jair Bolsonaro over social isolation as a means of containing the coronavirus epidemic – Mandetta advocates broad isolation; Bolsonaro disagrees and wants economic activities to be resumed.

“We joined the Ministry together, we are in the Ministry together and we will leave the Ministry together,” he said.

Although the secretary made the resignation official, Mandetta said he will not accept it.

“There was a lot of noise today because of Wanderson. I already said I will not accept it. Wanderson’s still here. That’s the end of it. Let’s work together until we leave the Ministry of Health together,” he said.

“Wanderson sent me a note. The way it reached me, is the way it was sent back. We came in together and we’ll leave together,” he reiterated in another moment.

In a message sent to the secretariat’s staff, Wanderson de Oliveira said that Mandetta’s management “is over.”

The “moderate” wing of the government is trying to persuade Bolsonaro to choose a technical profile name to replace Mandetta in the Ministry.

In an interview, Mandetta said he will leave the Ministry in three cases:

• “One, when the president no longer wants my work;”
• “Second, if I eventually get a flu like this one and need to be removed by a force beyond my power”;
• “Third, when I feel that the work accomplished is no longer required because somehow we go through this stress.”

According to the Minister, all the alternatives remain valid.

“Clearly, this is not unfamiliar. Clearly there is a misalignment within the Ministry of Health. And that’s why we’ve made it very clear that we’re going to work up to 100 percent of our potential. Nothing changes. As long as I’m in the Ministry of Health, you can be certain that the people are working,” he said.

During the interview, Mandetta conceded that he will leave. According to him, “this is something public. According to the Minister, “no one owns the truth” and there are “different views” between him and Bolsonaro.

“The important aspect is that whoever the President places in the Ministry of Health will be trusted and he will provide that person with the means to work based on science, numbers, transparency in cases. So that society, together with its governors and its mayors, may make its best decisions”.

According to the Minister, “he [Bolsonaro] clearly wants another type of position from the Ministry of Health. That I, based on what we have been given, based on science, have this avenue to propose. Outside that avenue, one has to find alternatives. And there are many alternatives, very good people, very experienced people,” he said.

Mandetta said he asked the team’s technical staff to cooperate with the next Minister. According to him, the team has become “a family” because “one felt secure with the other. According to Mandetta, a number of secretaries’ resignations were requested and he did not accept them.

Gabbardo

During the interview, the Ministry’s executive secretary João Gabbardo was asked if he would accept a potential invitation to take over as Minister.

He said he would remain in the Ministry as long as necessary to transition with the future Minister’s team, but said he had a commitment to Mandetta.

“I met Minister Mandetta in December 2018. I was invited by the Minister in the transition. I’d never been with Minister Mandetta before. I was invited to this position, I accepted, and I have a commitment to Minister Mandetta. He invited me. The day he leaves, I leave with him,” he said.

Source: G1