Rousseff to Meet with Cabinet, Governors Before New Year

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – After spending Christmas with family in the Southern region of the country, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is expected to start the last week of the year calling cabinet members for a meeting to discuss the country’s economic and political situation. On the agenda are the priority projects and reforms the government hopes to implement already at the beginning of 2016.

Cabinet members expected to attend include new Finance Minister, Nelson Barbosa, and new Planning Minister, Valdir Simão, as well as her top political advisors and her Chief of Staff, Jaques Wagner.

According to Agencia Brasil, Wagner stated that discussions will include the possible reform in the country’s social security system, new concessions of ports and airports as well as changes in the fiscal system.

Analysts predict that the issue of the President’s impeachment proceedings will also be on the agenda.

Rousseff is also expected to meet with the more than twelve governors who are in Brasilia for a meeting. The governors, including those from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais are scheduled to meet to discuss a common agenda to withstand the current economic crisis faced by the country.

The governors, from different political parties and different parts of the country, all face dwindling revenues, increased unemployment, and surging costs with health and education.

An investigation conducted by Globo’s G1 web news channel in October revealed that many of the 26 states as well as the nation’s capital had sent their respective legislatures 2016 budgets which forecast either deficits or a balanced budget if tax increases were approved.