Several Brazilian opposition lawmakers called on Tuesday for the opening of an investigation against President Jair Bolsonaro and his Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, for allegedly trafficking in influence to favor political allies of evangelical pastors.
“Milton Ribeiro turned the Ministry of Education into a business desk for his undercover dealings, negotiating public favors in the light of day,” Fabiano Contarato, Senator of the Workers Party (PT) of former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wrote on Twitter.
“I will ask the Federal Supreme Court (STF) today to immediately open an investigation to investigate the very serious allegations against the minister,” he added.
The scandal broke out when the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper revealed Monday night the content of an audio in which Ribeiro, himself an evangelical pastor, assured that, at Bolsonaro's request, he would give priority to freeing up resources for education to municipalities led by “friends” of two influential pastors.
“My priority is to attend to the municipalities that need the most, and secondly, to attend to all those who are friends of Pastor Gilmar,” Ribeiro said during a meeting in which mayors and pastors Gilmar Santos and Arilton Moura would have participated, who according to the newspaper would have had a great influence within the government.
“It was a special request that the President of the Republic made to me,” he added.
The revelations caused outrage and a group of opposition MPs also called for an investigation to be opened in the STF.
Ribeiro rejected the accusations of influence-trafficking and said in a statement that Bolsonaro “did not ask for preferential attention for anyone.”
“He only asked me to receive everyone who sought me, including those cited in the report,” he said, claiming that ministers cannot “determine the allocation of resources to favor or disadvantage any municipality or state.”
Political commentators have recounted the behind-the-scenes pressure of parliamentarians allied to Bolsonaro, who seeks re-election in October, to demand the minister's resignation.
Theologian, lawyer and pastor of the Presbyterian church, Ribeiro, 63, was charged in late January by the prosecution for “homophobia”, after he said in an interview published in September 2020 that gay adolescents come from “maladjusted families”.
In July 2020, he assumed the government of the far-right Bolsonaro, who took power with the support of powerful evangelical circles.
His predecessor, Abraham Weintraub, left office in June 2020, following several controversies, such as a tweet against China considered racist and insults to Supreme Court judges.
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