Collor crisis deepens after key minister quits
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE resignation of Jose Goldemberg, Brazil's Education Minister, marks a sharp turn for the worse in the political crisis afflicting the government of President Fernando Collor de Mello.
It comes hard on the heels of the departure of presidential spokesman, Pedro Luis Rodrigues, and raises the fear of a stampede to leave the administration before the President faces impeachment for his alleged involvement in corruption.
Mr Goldemberg, a distinguished scientist and former rector of Sao Paulo University, with no party political affiliation, is believed to have felt uneasy for some time about the revelations of financial impropriety in the presidential circle that have been appearing in the Brazilian press almost daily since the President's brother, Pedro, set the ball rolling in a magazine interview in May.
For a while Mr Goldemberg had become the key figure in the cabinet, standing in for the controversial environment secretary, Jose Lutzenberger, when he resigned a few months before June's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and staying on when the President restructured his cabinet at the beginning of April.
Other senior members of the administration, such as the president of the Central Bank, Francisco Gros, are believed to be unhappy about the President's apparent determination to buy political survival even at the expense of an economic austerity programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund in January.
This commits Brazil to strict controls on public spending, but over the weekend the President secured extra resources for the Transport and Social Action ministries to allocate to such schemes as road construction, designed to secure the support of congressional deputies when it comes to voting on the impeachment charges.
Mr Collor needs the backing of 168 deputies, or one-third of the Congress, if he is to survive.
The key figure, as far as the stability of the economic programme is concerned, is the Economy Minister, Marcilio Marques Moreira, a highly respected figure in international financial circles, who was instrumental in securing last month's agreement in principle on the restructuring of dollars 42bn (pounds 22bn) of Brazil's commercial debt. If he were to go now - and observers believe this is unlikely for the present - the good work done in restoring Brazil to financial respectability could rapidly unravel.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments