Lula places as a key minister a figure in the toughest wing of the Workers Party

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to Gleisi Hoffmann, the hitherto president of the Workers Party (PT) and representative of the most dogmatic left in the formation of government on Monday.

Hoffmann, who for almost three years, between 2011 and 2014, was the head of the Civil House (Chief of Cabinet) of Dilma Roussef, returns as Minister of Institutional Relations. The rise of the former president of the PT bothered the political formations nucleated in the “centride”a diffuse amalgam of center -right parties that sought to win more ministries and that are essential for the parliamentary stability of the government.

Hoffmann, of German origin, began his political career in 1983 in the Communist Party, and in recent times he noticed for his criticism of Fernando Haddad, the Minister of Finance of Lula and presidential candidate defeated by Jair Bolsonaroi in 2018.

This Monday, at the Asunción ceremony, Hoffmann sought to contemplate with Haddad, which is carrying out a complex fiscal reform that generates doubts in the markets.

“I am fully aware of my role, which is the political articulation. I will be here, Minister Fernando Haddad, to help consolidate the economic agendas of the Government. Agendas that you are leading and that are returning to Brazil on the path of employment, growth and rent,” said Hoffmann, who promised to build “alliances” that promote the government.

While several observers indicated that The presence of the “hard” Hoffmann in the government implies a turn to the leftanalyst Celso Rocha de Barros pointed out in “Folha de Sao Paulo” that Lula’s real intention is another: moderate the address of the PT, which should be in charge of Edinho Silva, a former mayor of less dogmatic trend.

Lula assumed on January 1, 2023 expanding the structure of the government to 37 ministries, a way to find shelter for the many minor political formations that were intercounted after their candidacy.

He veteran leftist leader, who already ruled Brazil for two periods Between 2033 and 2011, he did not release a garment yet about what he will do in next year’s elections, although on several occasions he was prepared to fight for the seventh time for the presidency in search of a fourth term, which would put him in front of the ninth world economy until his 85 years.

That goal will not be simple, because Lula is today at its lowest popular times, with surveys that place it with only 24 percent approval.