BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s cities minister quit yesterday in a widely expected departure that is part of a slow cabinet reshuffle by President Dilma Rousseff at the start of her second year in office.
The exit of Mario Negromonte, who denied media reports last year that he offered money to legislators for support, is unlikely to raise tensions within the government’s coalition of 17 parties. Negromonte is a member of the Partido Progressista, one of the smaller parties in the coalition.
For months, Rousseff resisted pressure to dismiss Negromonte after several of her ministers left following corruption allegations. Six ministers were dismissed last year due to corruption or ethical breaches.
Rousseff has sought in recent weeks to make changes in a cabinet made up largely of political allies and former aides of her predecessor as president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rousseff considered Negromonte to be a weak manager, officials have told Reuters.
She replaced Negromonte with Aguinaldo Ribeiro, a lawmaker from the same party. In a deal with the party, she placed technocrats in top posts at the ministry, government sources said. In Brazilian politics, there’s a longstanding tradition by which coalition parties get to name cabinet ministers in exchange for backing the government in Congress.
The president has shown a preference for appointing officials with long experience in government or specific fields, rather than those with merely political connections. In January, she named a technocrat as minister of science and technology.
