Re-elected president of Fiocruz, Mario Moreira took office on Friday (4/4) for another four years. Re-elected on October 24th for the 2025-2028 term, he received 81.8% of the valid votes. The ceremony was held outdoors in Praça Pasteur, next to the famous Manguinhos Castle in Rio de Janeiro. Fiocruz's 28th president Mario Moreira began his second term with the most diverse ethnic-racial and gender composition in the Foundation's history. Of the top management positions, including vice-presidents and coordinators, 64% will be occupied by blacks. Women will be in the majority, occupying 7 of the 11 seats. Moreira said that the event was "a celebration of democracy".
At the start of his speech, Moreira said that the ceremony "represents much more than the inauguration of a president of Fiocruz. It signifies the capacity we have in Brazil to mobilize various sectors of society, who are here in defense of democracy, science, health and also in uncompromising defense of the [Unified Health System] SUS." He greeted the former presidents present - Carlos Morel, Paulo Buss and Paulo Gadelha - and the other participants at the table.
Alluding to a phrase said in a previous speech by Elizabeth Campos, coordinator of the Social Enterprise Network (CCAP Network), Moreira said that "Fiocruz is not close to the favelas and peripheries. It's favela and periphery.
The president admitted to being nervous due to the emotional days he has been experiencing. “I have received some honors recently, such as being knighted in the Belgian crown. But nothing compares to the emotion of taking office as president of Fiocruz. And here, in Praça Pasteur, a place of struggle, of reinstatement of dismissed employees and of so many other mobilizations.”
He said that scientists and science had suffered persecution in recent times. "The Lula government is the resumption of democracy and the process of social mobilization. Fiocruz suffered during the two governments prior to Lula's. We have to work on rebuilding the country and in this recovery Fiocruz has a role and knows what its role is, in science, in health, in training professionals, in technology. It has also taken on an increasingly important role on the international stage."
Moreira stressed that there are major challenges in Brazil. "We have a very unequal country in which part of the population is hungry again. I hope that during Lula's first term we can return to a time, about ten years ago, when we thought we had overcome this situation once and for all."
The president said that Brazil is the only country that has something like the SUS and that this needs to be valued. “It is a civilizing flag. Every worker here is fully aware of our role. Fiocruz is an asset of Brazilian society, present in all biomes, in several states. We mobilize 11,000 workers every day, all in activities aimed at the common good."
Moreira mentioned climate change and the damaging effects of these changes on health. He also commented on the demographic transition the country is going through, whose disease burden is putting pressure on the SUS.
"Fiocruz is a living, pulsating body that breathes science and exudes care, an organism that grows, that thinks, that reinvents itself and insists on resisting in the face of any scenario, we are driven by the tireless search for knowledge, for welcome, for the right medicine, for the exact vaccine, for the possible cure."

Source: Fiocruz News Agency (AFN).