Workers’ Party head to oversee government’s institutional relations
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has chosen Federal Representative and Workers’ Party (PT) head Gleisi Hoffmann to take over his Secretariat of Institutional Relations—the department tasked with the government’s political strategy. She is slated to take office on March 10.
Hoffmann and the president met Friday morning (Feb. 28) and her nomination was confirmed in an official statement. She is to replace Alexandre Padilha, recently appointed as health minister in place of Nísia Trindade.
Career
Hoffmann holds a law degree and is a specialist in management of public organizations and financial administration. She began her political career in the student movement, joined the PT in 1989, and was secretary in the government of Mato Grosso do Sul state and public management secretary in Londrina, Paraná state.
In 2002, during President Lula’s first administration, Hoffmann was appointed finance director of Itaipu Binacional. From 2008 to 2009, she presided over the PT’s state office in Paraná and was elected senator for the state in 2010. In 2011, then-President Dilma Rousseff, also a PT member, invited her to take over as her chief of staff, a position she held until February 2014, when she resumed her seat in the Senate.
In 2017, Hoffmann was elected national president of the PT and in 2018 she joined the Brazilian lower house for Paraná. In 2022, she was re-elected as federal representative.
