Who is Alexandre da Padilha, the new Minister of Health in the Lula government?

By dismissing Nísia Trindade from the Ministry of Health this Tuesday, the 25th, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) announced the succession of the portfolio in a continuous act: the Minister of Institutional Relations Alexandre Padilha will be relocated and will return to command the portfolio he headed between 2011 and 2014, during the first term of President Dilma Rousseff (PT).

Nísia's dismissal triggers a ministerial reform in the Lula government . With an eye on the 2026 elections , Lula wants a top echelon that can leave its mark on federal management. As Minister of Health, Padilha was at the forefront of the creation of Mais Médicos , one of the hallmarks of Dilma's first term.

Alexandre Padilha, 53, has a degree in Medicine and a PhD in Public Health and is a federal deputy on leave. Since January 2023, he has headed the Secretariat for Institutional Relations, a department with the status of a ministry whose responsibility is political coordination between Congress and the Planalto Palace .

Despite the success in approving bills that were dear to the government, Padilha's management at the Secretariat was marked by a troubled relationship with the then president of the Chamber of Deputies , Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who went so far as to describe the secretary as a "personal enemy" and "incompetent", calling for his dismissal from office .

By relocating him to the Esplanada dos Ministérios, Lula removes Padilha from his role as government coordinator, but without giving in to pressure from Arthur Lira, who has already left the Chamber of Deputies - the House is now presided over by Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB). Padilha's appointment also prevents the Centrão from occupying the Health portfolio, coveted due to its robust budget and high rate of execution of parliamentary amendments.

Before heading the Ministry of Health in Dilma's first government, Padilha had been interim director of the National Health Foundation (Funasa), in 2004, and head of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations between 2009 and 2010. After Dilma's administration, he was municipal secretary of Health for the city of São Paulo , between 2015 and 2016.

Padilha has been a member of the PT since 1988. In addition to being appointed to positions, secretariats and ministries during PT administrations, he ran for governor of the state of São Paulo for the party in 2014. He came in third place in that election , with 18.2% of the valid votes. The ticket of Geraldo Alckmin , then a member of the PSDB, and Márcio França , a member of the PSB, was elected in the first round, with 57.31% of the valid votes. Today, Alckmin, França and Padilha are part of the same administration in the federal government.

In 2018, he was elected federal deputy for São Paulo with 87,576 votes. He did not hold prominent positions in the House's permanent committees during the legislature, but was reelected in the following election, in 2022, with 140,037 votes. He took leave to take over the Secretariat of Institutional Relations.

As a federal deputy, Padilha authored 19 bills that became law. Of these, three have the new Minister of Health as the sole author of the text. These are the laws that instituted the "Yellow July" campaign, to raise awareness of human rights, and the "National Funk Day", celebrated on July 12. He is also the author of the law that regulates the profession of public health worker.

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