Lula appoints Dilma Rousseff to head Banco dos Brics

Former president Dilma Rousseff will head the New Development Bank (NBD), an institution of the Brics, a group formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Headquartered in Shanghai, the NBD – also known as Banco dos Brics – aims to finance works for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the countries that make up the collegiate of emerging economies.

Lula will go to Beijing in the second half of March and the expectation is that he will take Dilma with him on the trip. O Estadão found that the nomination of the former president to head the NDB already has the approval of all members of the Brics.

The government asked diplomat Marcos Troyjo, current president of the NBD, to resign from command of the institution. Appointed to the position by then-president Jair Bolsonaro, Troyjo would have a mandate until 2025 and is already in Brazil. The diplomat was invited to be part of the team of the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas.

Impeachment

Dilma was impeached in 2016 and has not held public office since then. In 2018, she tried to be elected senator for Minas Gerais and was defeated.

During last year’s election campaign, rumors circulated that Lula would hide the former president so that her rejection would not stick with him, but that did not happen.

Since Lula’s victory, Dilma has participated in ceremonies in Brasília and even spoke at the inauguration of the chief minister of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), Jorge Messias. At the Planalto Palace, every time her name was announced, Dilma was hailed by the audience as a “warrior of the Brazilian people”.

Before nominating the ally to the Banco dos Brics – created in 2014, when the PT was president -, Lula considered the possibility of nominating her to the Brazilian embassy in Portugal, but she declined.