Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Tuesday (9) that the federal government is promoting the largest distribution of money that a political campaign has made since the end of the Empire. For the pre-candidate, it is possible that the people will not peacefully accept the end of these temporary benefits after the election period.
Lula also criticized Bolsonaro’s position, who classified the manifesto led by Fiesp in favor of democracy as a “letter”.
The former president participates in the Meeting with Candidates for the Presidency: Priority Guidelines of the Federal Government (2023-2026)”, organized by Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo).
“We are going to run for an election seeing one of the opponents, not to mention names, making the largest distribution of money that a political campaign has seen since the end of the Empire. With 56 days to go before the elections, it decides to distribute R$ 50 and few billion in benefits that last until December,” said Lula.
“One has to ask whether the people will peacefully accept the withdrawal of a benefit they are receiving on account of the elections.”
Lula stated that he could have launched the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) in the 2006 elections, but he did not do so so that the initiative would not be confused as something electoral.
In his opening speech in the debate, Lula evoked the memory of businessman José Alencar, his deputy and father of the president of Fiesp, Josué Gomes da Silva, when he stated that Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), his deputy, will have an equally important role in his government. , if elected.
Support for administrative and tax reforms
During the debate, the president was asked by businessmen about tax and administrative reforms and stated that he would support both agendas. “We are going to have to carry out an administrative reform, yes. There are few people earning a lot and a lot of people earning little. It is necessary to mold the bureaucracy to a new culture.”
Lula said that it is necessary for businessmen to help improve the level of the National Congress so that it is possible to advance in these and other reforms. “God help you to improve the level of our bench. It is not possible for us to have the Congress we have today.”
The former president also stated that the election is polarized and that there is no third way for the country.
“I see this thing in the newspapers every day that we have to look for the third way. In the history of humanity there is no third way. God and the devil polarize all life. What exists is the experience of two people [Lula e Alckmin] who have a highly comfortable past of public management and this adventurer, who I don’t know why he was elected. I can not understand.”
Manifesto for Democracy
At the event, the former president defended the letter articulated by Fiesp in defense of democracy.
“How can we live in a country where the president tells seven lies every day, and with the greatest impudence. He calls a letter in defense of democracy a ‘letter,'” Lula said.
“Perhaps the letter he would like to have is a letter written by militiamen in Rio de Janeiro, and not a letter written by businessmen, intellectuals, trade unionists, defending the democratic regime and the electronic ballot box, which so far has been proven to be a of the most perfect that exist in the world.”
With the endorsement of trade union centrals, Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks), the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and UNE (National Union of Students), the document preaches an “unavoidable commitment to the sovereignty of the Brazilian people expressed by the vote and exercised in accordance with the Constitution”.
The letter also highlights the importance of the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence.
The text states that respect for the rule of law and democratic stability in the country are essential for Brazil to overcome the challenges and that this is “the greatest meaning of the 7th of September this year”.
“Our democracy has given evidence of robustness. In less than four decades, it has faced deep crises, both economic, with periods of recession and hyperinflation, and political, overcoming these ills by the strength of our institutions”, says another excerpt from the document.
On Monday (8), Lula signed the “Letter to Brazilians and Brazilians in Defense of the Democratic Rule of Law”. The text was organized by former students of the Largo São Francisco Law School, at USP (University of São Paulo), and had the subsequent articulation of movements such as 247 Artes and the Prerogativas group, which brings together jurists and lawyers.
Both letters will be read on August 11 at ceremonies at the Largo São Francisco Faculty of Law.
According to people close to him, Lula initially did not want to sign the manifestos for fear of giving the movement a political-electoral character and being accused of trying to instrumentalize the initiative.
After the endorsement of the letter by politicians and presidential candidates, however, Lula’s allies encouraged his participation in a counterpoint to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who has staged several coup demonstrations and jeopardized the fairness of electronic voting machines.
Bolsonaro was invited to sign the Fiesp letter and declined. The president also canceled his participation in the “Meeting with Candidates for the Presidency: Priority Guidelines of the Federal Government (2023-2026)”, previously scheduled for the 11th. The president’s visit to the entity at another time is not ruled out.
Ciro Gomes (PDT) and Simone Tebet (MDB) have already participated in the debate.
The documents from both Fiesp and USP law students are seen as a response to Bolsonaro’s authoritarian attacks.
The initiative of former students of the USP Law School refers to the Letter to Brazilians of 1977.
That year, representatives of the academic community also read in Largo de São Francisco a manifesto in repudiation of the military dictatorship.
The letter, prepared in response to Bolsonaro’s attacks, recalls the overcoming of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), the enactment of the 1988 Constitution and affirms that democracy has matured.
The text considers, however, that Brazil is going through a moment of immense danger to democratic normality and risk to institutions.
“Unfounded attacks unaccompanied by evidence question the fairness of the electoral process and the democratic rule of law so hard won by Brazilian society. Threats to other powers and sectors of civil society and the incitement to violence and the rupture of the constitutional order are intolerable” , it says.
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