Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer has appointed Fernando Bezerra Filho as the country’s new mines and energy minister amid a political battle that suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff from office yesterday (12 May).
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Image of Filho, from Twitter |
Filho said following his appointment that the ministry will work to seek private investment to the sector. He's quoted by Brazil's government website, Portal Brasil, as saying, "We have to give predictability to the rules, contracts, because the country will grow again and need energy. We need to prepare the bases for investors, domestic or foreign, may have the tranquility of being able to re-invest in Brazil."
Filho will also address the future of Brazil's national oil company in the coming days with Temer.Filho, 32, is a congressman with the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) of northwestern state Pernambuco. He has been in the House of Representatives since 2007, and is in his third consecutive term.
Filho is also the son of Brazil Senator Fernando Vezerra Coelho, who voted for the opening of the Rousseff impeachment proceedings in the Senate. Coelho Filho also voted in favor of the impeachment process of opening the House. The deputy was third vice-chairman of the special committee that examined the impeachment process, according to globo.com.
In other cabinet changes, Temer appointed José Sarney Filho as environment minister, Marcos Pereira as trade and industry Minister and Gilberto Kassab as science, technology, innovation and communications minister.
Rousseff will face an impeachment trial in the Senate for breaking budget laws, accused of lying about the size of country’s budget deficit to make the economy seem better off than it was, in the run-up to her 2014 re-election.
Yesterday, Brazil’s Senate approved the continuation of the impeachment of Rousseff in a 55 to 22 vote. She will be suspended from office for a total of 180 days. However, her suspension could last as long as six months.
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