President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday (2) that Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta lacks "humility." Bolsonaro said he wants to set a date for the reopening of commercial activity in the country, but that he still does not have enough popular support to reopen it with the stroke of a pen.
"Mandetta wants to do his will very much. It may be that he is right. It may be. But he lacks a little more humility, to lead Brazil in this difficult time, and we need him to win this battle", he said in an interview with Jovem Pan.
According to Bolsonaro, the minister "extrapolated" in facing the coronavirus pandemic should have "listened more to the President of the Republic".
Sought by Folha, the Health Minister said he would not comment. "I have never made any comment on his actions. There is no comment on what the President of the Republic says." And he added: "I do not comment on what the President of the Republic says. He has a popular mandate, and whoever has a popular mandate speaks, and whoever does not, like me, works".
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon