Brazil announces more names for govt transition in environment, agriculture
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, who is coordinating the government transition process on behalf of President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, announced on Wednesday more names for the team in areas including agriculture and environment.
As speculation mounts on who Lula will choose to form his cabinet, three former ministers in previous administrations of his Workers’ Party were announced for the environment group. Three other former ministers close to rural producers were tapped for the agriculture group.
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While Lula attends the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, his first overseas trip since defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in October, Alckmin announced that former environment ministers Marina Silva, Izabella Teixeira and Carlos Minc would participate in the transition process.
Silva and Teixeira are with Lula at COP27, where the president-elect seeks to deliver a message that “Brazil is back” in the fight against global warming.
As Lula also looks to re-build connections with agribusiness, a key constituency for Bolsonaro in his unsuccessful re-election bid, people close to the sector were also announced for the transition.
Former agriculture ministers Neri Geller, Katia Abreu and Luis Carlos Guedes will take part, Alckmin told reporters, as well as Senator Carlos Favaro and Evandro Gussi, the head of local sugarcane industry group Unica.
The mining and energy group will include names such as Senator Jean Paul Prates, a strong candidate to head state-run oil company Petrobras next year, and Mauricio Tolmasquim, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the vice president-elect added.
(Reporting by Bernardo Caram; Editing by Angus MacSwan)