The Brazilian government decided to support the reappointment for a second term of the director general of the WHO (World Health Organization), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The information was forwarded to CNN by presidential auxiliaries and confirmed by the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga.
The minister will travel next Thursday (19) to Geneva, Switzerland, where he will attend the annual meeting of the international agency.
“This is the position of the federal government. I represent the federal government on this issue,” the minister told CNN . “The government’s position is one of support for Tedros’ reappointment,” she added.
Tedros is Africa’s first elected director-general of the WHO and has led the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst public health crisis in a century.
Amid the health crisis, President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the WHO over the handling of the pandemic.
He said the health agency had left a lot to be desired.
And he even stated that the Brazilian government could even abandon the world organization if it did not stop acting with an “ideological bias”.
According to government aides, however, the president reached an agreement with Tedros in a conversation at the end of last year, during a G20 meeting.
“At the last G20, the president spoke at length with Tedros, with my participation and that of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos França,” recalled Queiroga.
Tedros’ home country, Ethiopia, refused to nominate him for a second term, which made it necessary for other countries to nominate.
The 28 states supporting his nomination include France and Germany, as well as Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda.
Source: CNN Brasil
