Good morning! Bolsonaro hands more and more control to the Big Center in Congress. YouTube goes on a spree of deleting the president’s videos. Brazil sees a big jump in tax revenue. And why the water crisis should last into 2022.
The Big Center given the keys to the government
President Jair Bolsonaro confirmed he will carry out a minor cabinet reshuffle next week that will see Senator Ciro Nogueira appointed as his Chief of Staff. The move transforms the government’s marriage with Congress’ so-called “Big Center” into complete symbiosis.
- The Big Center is a federation of mildly-conservative parties which use their collective force to gain power and cabinet positions. Mr. Nogueira is chairman of the Progressives (PP) party, the most influential in the Big Center.
- The group can just as easily be allied with far-right Mr. Bolsonaro as it was with the center-left governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.
- Exhibit A: In a 2017 interview, Mr. Nogueira called Mr. Bolsonaro a “fascist” and “not suitable for the presidency,” while calling Lula “the best president Brazil ever had.”
Why it matters. The Chief of Staff position is traditionally handed to someone of the president’s utmost confidence,...