Dilma Rousseff Reshuffles Cabinet, Names New Chief of Staff

Edited by Ivan Martínez
2015-10-01 12:04:40

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Brasilia, October 1 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday partially reshuffled her cabinet in a bid to put an end to internal conflicts within the government coalition, Reuters reported.

Rousseff has replaced the Education Minister Renato Janine Ribeiro with Aloizio Mercadante, who was her chief of staff and had previously been in charge of that secretariat.
        
The president has planned to name Jacques Wagner as her new chief of staff, according to an unidentified source quoted by Reuters.

Wagner was named Defense Minister this year, after Rousseff started her second term in office.  Ribeiro is a 65-year-old academic who had been named education minister in April. 

According to La Jornada, Ribeiro's replacement had been predicted by various Brazilian political analysts, who said that Mercadante – a ruling Worker's Party or PT militant and a close ally of Rousseff's – did not enjoy the backing of his own party nor the allied Brazilian Party of Democratic Movement (PMDB).

Former PT President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was one of the political leaders backing Mercadante's removal as chief of staff. Rousseff defended the official, because she considers him to be one of her most loyal advisers.

The move by Rousseff is in part designed to please the government's coalition and thus make it easier to get her fiscal plans approved by Congress.

Earlier in the month, Rousseff said the country needs to unite to confront the present economic crisis and she struck back at her political opponents whom she accuses of trying to take advantage of the country's economic crisis to undermine her government and the country's democratic system.


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