Analysis: Boulos uses inauguration ceremony to highlight strategy one year before the election

The new minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Guilherme Boulos, made clear, during his inauguration ceremony in the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the strategy he will adopt at the head of the department with an office at Palácio do Planalto.

In a speech with a strong political tone, Boulos took aim at the financial market when he commented, when discussing the police operation that left 119 dead in Rio, that Lula is “a president who knows that the head of organized crime in this country is not in a shack in a favela, he is often involved in money laundering in Faria Lima”.

With the crowd in his favor, in a Palácio do Planalto occupied by members of social movements, Boulos committed to dialogue with broad sectors of society, but made the reservation that “there is no dialogue with those who attack democracy and betray Brazil”.

— They wanted to see us dead — he pointed out.

Soon after, he said that the message to these enemies of the country was “no amnesty”. The audience repeated the slogan in chorus, interrupting his speech.

Boulos also warned that he will not take any insults home and will go to battle when he is targeted by his opponents:

— As far as they know, every attack will have a response.

The new minister also showed full rapport with the agenda that Lula should take to the 2026 electoral contest. He called the 6×1 work schedule “shameful”. And he announced that he intends to expose hypocrisies by showing that opponents say they are against the system, but does not support the government’s proposal to tax billionaires and bets.

Boulos needed just 20 minutes on the field to show that he will be Lula’s most advanced striker in the 12 months that separate the president from his new encounter with the polls.