President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced, at the end of Wednesday’s ministerial meeting, the departure of Tourism Minister Celso Sabino and that a replacement will be named by the minister’s former party, União Brasil, a source present at the meeting told Reuters.
Sabino was expelled from União in December, after deciding to stay in power even as the party announced its break with the government, accompanied by direct attacks on Lula from party president Antonio Rueda.
The minister accepted this early departure because he would leave the government at the beginning of next year to be a candidate for the Senate of his state, Pará, for a party yet to be defined, and he had to have the support of the president. Sabino just wanted to stay until the end of this year to finish organizing COP30, in Belém, and that’s why he refused to leave the government when the party broke with Lula.
Despite the breakup, União asked to give Sabino’s home a new name, and Lula agreed, the source said. The nomination must come from the most pro-government wing of the union formation in the House, which Planalto wishes to maintain on an allied basis.
Despite the rift, Rueda agreed for the bench to make the appointment. The name suggested so far is Gustavo Damião, son of federal deputy Damião Feliciano (PB), who was Secretary of Tourism of his state.
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