Brazil’s Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles looks on during a ceremony of joining to the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) party, in Brasilia, Brazil, April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
April 6, 2018
By Marcela Ayres and Patricia Duarte
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles told Reuters he will resign later on Friday, as he decides whether to run in an October election in which he has been mulling a presidential bid but may settle for being President Michel Temer’s running mate.
“I decided to leave now. I will study a possible candidacy,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message, without elaborating.
Meirelles later told reporters that he will be replaced by his deputy minister Eduardo Guardia, who is expected to continue his efforts to rein in a budget deficit and restore confidence in the management of Brazil’s economy.
Meirelles, 72, a former banking executive and central bank governor, has previously said he may be interested in a presidential bid, but that he would wait to see whether Temer ends up running. Temer has been polling in the low single digits in recent surveys.
On Tuesday, Meirelles joined the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement party (MDB), Brazil’s largest, at an event that felt like the possible prelude to a launch of a Temer-Meirelles ticket, with a large photo of the two men and a campaign jingle playing loudly.
Meirelles previously belonged to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a partner in Temer’s coalition government, but left after it became clear the party planned to back Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin in his presidential run.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Duarte, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
