Brizola Neto is new minister of Labor

In a note that was released on Monday, April 30, president Dilma Rousseff said she was appointing deputy Brizola Neto (PDT-RJ) as the new minister of Labor because she was certain he “would make a great contribution to the country.” She also thanked the former minister, Carlos Lupi, and the acting minister, Paulo Roberto Pinto, for their help in selecting the new minister.

The decision to appoint Brizola Neto was announced after negotiations that lasted four months. Those negotiations brought together Carlos Lupi, the president of the PDT, Dilma Rousseff, and Gilberto Carvalho, the president’s top administrative aide. It has been reported that the PDT was not unanimously in favor of Brizola Neto – something about him not being political enough.

[The ministry of Labor had been run by an acting minister since Lupi was forced out in December under a cloud of corruption charges. After Lupi left the ministry, as president of the PDT, he led the party’s fight to get back “its” ministry. In Brazil, the norm is that cabinet posts go to political parties that sublet them to politicians.

However, the Dilma Rousseff administration has had some bad luck with politicians running ministries (between June 2011 and February this year, no less than seven political ministers left the cabinet due to charges of corruption: Antonio Palocci, the Chief of Staff; Alfredo Nascimento, minister of Transportation; Wagner Rossi, minister of Agriculture; Pedro Novias, minister of Tourism; Orlando Silva, minister of Sports, Carlos Lupi, minister of Labor; and Mario Negromonte, minister of Cities).

As a result of this track record, the administration has sought out ministers who are more “technical” than “political.” [translation: in the context of Brazilian government, a more technical person at the head of a ministry means it will probably be run following the universal norms of efficient management; the priorities of a political person at the head of a ministry will be to see to the needs of his political party, family and friends, especially in terms of jobs and public funding (“cargos e verbas”)