Temer government vows 'change of course' for Brazil

Brazilian interim president Michel Temer's new cabinet promised to blaze a new path today to revive Latin America's largest economy after a string of crises put an end to 13 years of leftist rule.
As workers took down portraits of suspended president Dilma Rousseff, who faces an impeachment trial in the Senate, Temer's ministers held their first meeting in the presidential palace in Brasilia.
Ministers said afterwards that the new priorities would be to create a leaner government, balance finances, and root out the corruption that a huge judicial probe has uncovered at the highest levels of Brazilian politics and business.

"We're living through the worst economic crisis in the history of Brazil," said chief of staff Eliseu Padilha.
"People took to the streets to seek two things: they wanted a state without corruption and they wanted an efficient state," he said, referring to mass protests against Rousseff.
"Out with corruption and in with efficiency," he added, admitting achieving that would be "very difficult."

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles, the man tasked with restoring confidence in Brazil's economy, said the country demanded a "change of course," which he vowed to bring by cutting spending.
He pledged not to cut the popular social programs launched under the sidelined Workers' Party (PT) -- initiatives credited with helping lift tens of millions of people from poverty -- as long as beneficiaries really need them.

But he warned: "Maintaining a social program doesn't mean maintaining the misuse of a social program. We will make a rigorous evaluation of how social programs are being used." Temer faces many of the same stumbling blocks as his predecessor -- plus a few of his own.
Political analysts warned his honeymoon may not even last until he opens the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 5 -- South America's first.
He is just about as disliked as the deeply unpopular Rousseff. A recent poll found he would receive just two percent of the vote in a presidential election.

Temer will also face a deeply hostile left resentful over what it calls the "coup" against Brazil's first woman president.
He appealed on Thursday for "dialogue" to heal the wounds of the impeachment battle, but stoked opponents' outrage with his cabinet appointments: all 23 of his ministers are white men.
"We tried to search for women but because of the timetable... It was not possible," Padilha said.
He said the absence of female ministers would be compensated by putting women in non-cabinet-level jobs that have "a similar importance.