Political negotiations will decide next move for Miro Teixeira

The next two weeks will be decisive for relations between the Government and the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), and consequently for the future of Communications Minister Miro Teixeira.
According to a well-informed source, the dispute between PDT Chairman Leonel Brizola and Miro Teixeira is set to intensify. Mr Brizola is preparing a party-political broadcast (free under Brazil?s electoral laws) in which he plans to criticize President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his economic policies.
Meanwhile Mr Teixeira and Presidential Chief of Staff José Dirceu are talking to PDT members Congress one by one in an effort to guarantee their support. ?If they don?t succeed, Miro Teixeira?s days as communications minister are numbered because the Government will be keener still to gain the support of the PMDB and even the PSDB, who will demand cabinet jobs in return,? says the source.

It?s worth noting that senior officials disagree on the necessity of making room in the cabinet for a PMDB leader, although the lobbying for this to happen is intense.