See Carlos Lupi’s trajectory, now former Minister of Social Security
Carlos Lupi announced his resignation on Friday (2) of the Command of the Ministry of Social Security, after a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT). The departure occurs at the height of the crisis caused by billionaire fraud in Retirement and Pensions of the INSS, which placed the folder at the Federal Police and Union Comptroller Investigation Center (CGU).
“I deliver, on the afternoon of Friday (02), the role of Minister of Social Security to President Lula, whom I thank for the trust and opportunity,” wrote Lupi on his social networks.
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This is the second time that Lupi has left the termination of ministries under suspicion of irregularities. In 2011, during the government of former President Dilma Rousseff (PT), he resigned as Minister of Labor after allegations of misuse of NGO funds with agreements with the folder. At the time, the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency recommended its resignation, and Lupi chose to anticipate the dismissal.
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Omission criticism
Now, 14 years later, the former minister again leaves the federal government involved in suspicions of mismanagement and omission. Documents reveal that Lupi was alerted throughout 2023 at meetings of the National Social Security Council, on the increase in unauthorized discounts on retirement. Even so, no effective action was taken until 2024, when the scandal had already gained national proportions.
The crisis got worse after the Federal Police revealed a scheme that may have diverted more than $ 6.3 billion through improper discounts applied by associative entities agreed to the INSS. The president of the municipality, Alessandro Stefanutto – appointed by Lupi – was fired last week. He is the second leader of the dismissed INSS in the current management, after the removal of Glauco Wamburg, also appointed by Lupi, in 2023, on suspicion of irregular use of public resources.
Divided PDT and Open Succession
The decision to leave the ministry was made after Lula authorized Minister Gleisi Hoffmann to negotiate the departure with the PDT, a party to which Lupi is affiliated and of which he is a presidency. The evaluation of the Plateau is that it would be unfeasible to apply a management shock with the permanence of Lupi to the folder.
The removal rekindles internal disputes in the PDT. While an wing defends permanence in the ruling base, another group – led by Ciro Gomes – sees in the crisis an opportunity to break with the Lula administration.
Political trajectory
Carlos Roberto Lupi, 68, has a degree in business and has a long political trajectory linked to the PDT, a party that helped found alongside Leonel Brizola, whom he was close ally. He assumed the national presidency of the acronym after Brizola’s death in 2004, and has since been reelected several times.
In institutional policy, Lupi was a federal deputy between 1991 and 1995, Rio de Janeiro Municipal Transport Secretary and state secretary in the Brizola government. In 2002, he was defeated in the Senate dispute. In 2007, he accepted Lula’s invitation to head the Ministry of Labor, remaining in office until his resignation in 2011.
