Overview
- Lula confirmed Tuesday that Vice President Geraldo Alckmin will stay on the ticket for Brazil’s October presidential election.
- He said Alckmin will leave the Industry Ministry to follow a law that requires ministers who run for office to resign by April 4.
- Recent Datafolha polling shows Lula at 46% and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro at 43%, which falls within the margin of error and points to a tightening race.
- Alckmin, a center-right former São Paulo governor and Lula’s 2006 rival, has led tariff talks with the United States and worked on Mercosur–EU negotiations, which helped calm investor nerves in 2022.
- The announcement comes as the government prepares a broader reshuffle before the legal cutoff, with new names tapped for agriculture, environment, the chief of staff’s office, and planning, according to local reports.