Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his collaborators began this Monday to shape the future of what will be the third government della petista, under the watchful eye of the market and the international community.
Lula, 77, returned to work after a week’s vacation in the northeastern state of Bahia with the future first lady, Rosangela da Silvaafter an intense election campaign.
This Monday he was supposed to meet his team in Sao Paulo and he should travel Tuesday in Brasilia to closely follow the transition and negotiations with Congress, two allies on the left reported.
He also plans to meet with the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira.
Lula’s transition team will work in the offices of the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in the capital.
Under the coordination of the elected Vice President, Gerald Alckminyou will begin to receive status information delivered by the Jair Bolsonaro administration.
The challenge of keeping promises
The elected government is facing an immediate challenge: guarantee resources to deliver on campaign promisessuch as the maintenance of Auxilio Brasil, formerly Bolsa Família, at 600 reais (118 dollars).
“We cannot start 2023 without aid, without a real increase in the minimum wage. It was promised to the people at the polls,” said Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the Lula Workers’ Party (PT).
Insufficient resources in the budgetLula’s allies are negotiating with parliament the approval of a draft constitutional amendment that allows increase expensesviolating the “expenditure ceiling” rule.
The project must be approved by December 15th.
Only for Aid Brazil, with a promised bonus of 150 reais -30 dollars- for families with children up to 6 years, 70,000 million reais – almost 14,000 million dollars – would be needed.
Pulse in Congress
Lula gets ready a fight with Congress.
Bolsonaro’s Conservative Liberal Party will be in 2023 the largest caucus in both chambersa tougher opposition than that led by the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), during Lula’s first two terms.
But the leaders of the “Centrao”, parties often allied with the government, immediately showed it willingness to dialogue
Lula, president from 2003 to 2010, defeated Bolsonaro in the ballot, in a campaign centered on the promise of a return to past prosperity. without many clues on how it intends to govern.
Now you will facethe same challenge of the Latin American left“who recently came to power, said political scientist Leandro Consentino.
This is: “How to reconcile Fiscal Responsibility with a social calendar quite expected “, in a post-pandemic context of inflation and possible global recession, added this professor from the Insper Institute in São Paulo.
The economic reality of Brazil far from the boom of the 2000s, when Lula was able to finance his social policies by navigating the ‘boom’ of raw materials.
It has promised to reconcile “fiscal, social and sustainable responsibility” but keeps the market poised according to the definition of who will be your finance ministeruncertainty that extends to all portfolios.
Unlike Bolsonaro, who created a “super-ministry” of the economy, Lula predicts open the wallet in three: Treasury, Planning and Industry and Commerce.
dance names
“The market will react according to the names that form the whole “, assured Laureno.
Fernando Haddadformer Minister of Education, e Aloizio Mercadante, coordinator of Lula’s government program, could land in the economic area, speculates the Brazilian press.
The former metal worker has vowed to combat deforestation in the Amazon that skyrocketed under Bolsonaro and to put more emphasis on environmental protection, a way to rebuild Brazil’s prestige abroad, analysts say.
Before taking office, he will travel to Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) and will participate in COP27 which will arrive on 14, The same sources said this after being invited by the country’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“The climate issue is now a strategic priority at the highest levels,” former Environment Minister Marina Silva, who will accompany Lula to Egypt, told Folha de S. Paulo in an interview.
Silva is there to hire that wallet again.
The protection of the Amazon will be the key to “recovering the country’s credibility before the international community” e unlock trade agreements like that of the European Union and Mercosur, said André César, analyst of the consulting firm Hold.
The author is an AFP journalist
Source: Clarin
