The issue becomes more important for these religious groups, very active in politics, especially since this year Brazil will go to the polls to elect a new president and governors.
A group of opposition parliamentarians called on Tuesday for an investigation into the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, for suspicions of influence peddling in favor of evangelical pastors.
The complaint was filed with the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office, and is supported by an audio obtained by the newspaper Newspaper.
In the file, Ribeiro can be heard commenting that the budgets of the Ministry of Education have among their priorities the projects promoted by pastors of Pentecostal churches related to the government.
“My priority is to attend, first, to the municipalities that need the most. Second, to all the friends of Pastor Gilmar”, says the minister in reference to a religious leader close to Bolsonaro.
Ribeiro adds that this is “a special request” that he did his own “Republic President”.
However, in an official note in which he did not directly quote the audio, Ribeiro denied that Bolsonaro has made a request in this regard.
“The president of the Republic he did not ask for preferential attention for anyone. He just requested that he could receive everyone who sought me out, including the people cited in the report,” he said.
“In this way, I receive requests intermediated by parliamentarians, governors, mayors, universities and associations,” which “They are sent to the technical areas” of the Ministry, he added.
Jair Bolsonaro’s relationship with evangelical pastors
Even so, the revelation of the audio generated a storm around Minister Ribeiro, who is also the pastor of an evangelical church. In addition, the authority has already been criticized by the opposition for guiding its work in the Government for their religious beliefs.
Ribeiro is even responding in a process before the Supreme Court under the accusation of homophobia.
The foregoing, for having publicly declared that homosexuals are “product of dysfunctional families”, just as he has been accused of promoting far-right ideas in education.
Bolsonaro did not speak out, but the matter had repercussions even in supra-partisan groups that defend the interests of the evangelical churches.
Deputy Sosthenes Cavalcante, of the Liberal Party (PL), to which Bolsonaro belongs, said that the minister “He owes an explanation.”
In Brazil, the legislative chambers will soon be renewed, in which evangelicals have a strong presence and influence.