Roberto Freire (politician)

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Pereira and the second or paternal family name is Freire.

Roberto João Pereira Freire (born 20 April 1942) is a Brazilian lawyer and politician.

Roberto Freire
Freire at the Senate Education, Culture and Sports Commission in April 2017
Cidadania National President
In office 26 January 1992 – 9 September 2023
Succeeded by	Comte Bittencourt
Minister of Culture
In office 23 November 2016 – 22 May 2017
President	Michel Temer
Preceded by	Marcelo Calero
Succeeded by	João Batista de Andrade (acting)
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 20 March 2015 – 1 February 2019
Constituency	São Paulo
In office 1 February 2011 – 1 February 2015
Constituency	São Paulo
In office 1 February 2003 – 1 February 2007
Constituency	Pernambuco
In office 1 February 1979 – 1 February 1995
Constituency	Pernambuco
Senator for Pernambuco
In office 1 February 1995 – 1 February 2003
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco
In office 1 February 1975 – 1 February 1979
Constituency	At-large
Personal details
Born	Roberto João Pereira Freire (1942-04-20) 20 April 1942 (age 83) Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Political party	Independent (2023–present)
Other political affiliations	MDB (1966–1979) PMDB (1979–1985) PCB (1985–1992) Cidadania (1992–2023)
Profession	Lawyer

Freire was born in Recife. He is the president of Cidadania, former Federal Deputy,^[1][2] and former Minister of Culture appointed by president Michel Temer.^[3] He resigned from the office on 18 May 2017^[4]

Car Wash Scandal

Roberto Freire resigned as minister, due to his involvement with the crimes found in the Operation Car Wash.

The biggest implicated company, Odebrecht kept an entire department to coordinate the payment of bribe to politicians. In the Car Wash Operation, officers seized several electronic spreadsheets linking the payments to nicknames. Every corrupt politician received a nickname based on physical characteristics, public trajectory, personal infos, owned cars/boats, origin place or generic preferences. Roberto Freire's nickname was 'Curitiba', alusing the city with same name.^[5]