"President Jair Bolsonaro has just announced to me that I have been removed from my post," tweeted Thursday, April 16, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, Minister of Health and popular political figure in Brazil.
The minister, who advocates social distancing and confinement, totally disagrees with the Brazilian president, who has often decried "hysteria" around "a little flu" and advocated the return to work of Brazilians to save the economy.
After meeting with the head of state at the Presidential Palace in Planalto and refusing to resign, Luiz Henrique Mandetta confirmed rumors of his dismissal by Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter.
from planejar o enfrentamento da pandemia do coronavírus, o grande desafio que o nosso sistema de saúde está por enfrentar.
- Henrique Mandetta (@lhmandetta) April 16, 2020Shortly after the announcement, saucepan concerts were heard in several Brazilian cities in protest.
His successor is oncologist Nelson Teich, who met Jair Bolsonaro Thursday morning, several media said. He had already been approached for this portfolio after the election, in October 2018, of Jair Bolsonaro, but Luiz Henrique Mandetta had been preferred to him, in particular because of his political supports in Parliament.
Supported by the Brazilian Medical Association (AMB), Nelson Teich, like his predecessor, considers that containment is the best way to stem the pandemic.
Resignation of his right arm
The political fate of Luiz Henrique Mandetta was hanging by a thread on Wednesday. The early resignation of Wanderson de Oliveira, one of his closest collaborators, precipitated his departure. At the ministry's ritual conference at the end of the day, the minister announced that he would refuse the resignation of his right arm, who was present with him.
"I do not accept (his resignation), Wanderson is here. We are going to work together, until we leave together from the Ministry of Health," he said, not hiding that his fate was precarious .
"Political suicide" for Jair Bolsonaro
According to various Brazilian media, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, a 55-year-old doctor by training, announced to his team that he would be sacked this week.
The dismissal of a minister extremely popular with very worried Brazilians had been qualified in advance by editorialists as "political suicide" for Jair Bolsonaro, at a time when Brazil faced a possible carnage.
Brazil, the most affected country on a Latin American continent won by the global pandemic late compared to Asia and Europe, officially deplores 1,736 dead, according to the latest assessment, and awaits the peak of contamination end April or early May.
With AFP
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