After Scuffle for Posts Brazil Halts Nominations in Government

The idea is to try to halt political party disputes for posts in the Brazilian federal government at the start of Dilma Rousseff’s administration. Vice president, Michel Temer, who remains the president of the PMDB although he is on a four-month leave of absence at the moment, and the minister of Institutional Relations, Luiz Sergio, whose job is to deal with political party problems have announced that all nominations for posts in the executive branch have been suspended.

The only exceptions being executive secretaries who substitute ministers, chief administrative aides (“chefe de gabinete”) and press secretaries.

“The dispute for posts is democratic and legitimate because political parties want to occupy territory in the government,” explained deputy Marco Maia from Rio Grande do Sul’s state ruling Workers Party (PT).

He is the acting president of the Chamber of Deputies at the moment and a candidate to remain president in elections scheduled for the beginning of February. Maia denied that the political party disputes would have any consequences in the Chamber of Deputies election.

Meanwhile, the presidential Chief of Staff, Antonio Palocci, was also involved in negotiations to find a solution to the impasse. The acting president of the PMDB, senator Valdir Raupp from Roraima state, declared that in spite of the disputes the “climate among allied political parties is calm.”

However, deputy Eduardo Cunha from the Rio PMBD party complained that the PT had moved ahead with discussions on the distribution of posts below the ministerial level that had irritated the PMDB.

Leaders of the PMDB began holding their own meetings on the distribution of posts in the executive branch below the ministerial level, as well as positions of leadership in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

ABr