Picanha and beer is a ‘colorful version’ of the past, says Guedes about Lula’s speech

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) contested this Wednesday (19) the speech about “picanha and beer” by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), without mentioning the PT’s name, echoing the criticisms made by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to the opponent during the election campaign.

In a lecture at Brasil Export – National Forum of Logistics and Port Infrastructure, in Brasília, Guedes indirectly criticized PT’s management, giving negative examples of education and growth. According to him, the “colorful version” of the past is “beer and picanha”.

“The distance between Brazil and the rest of the world has increased, Brazil has become impoverished. They are now talking about steak and beer, they have no idea what happened, last place in the Pisa (International Student Assessment Program) of education, zero growth”, stated.

“There are people dreaming of returning to their former mediocrity. Young people instead of coming here from abroad, on the contrary, Brazilians going to wash dishes in Barcelona, ​​deliver pizza in Boston, young people all leaving, so we are at a decisive moment”, added.

On the eve of the second round of the presidential race, scheduled for the 30th, the Minister of Economy embarked on the campaign assuming the role of Bolsonaro’s electoral corporal, who was five points behind Lula in the first round.

In August, the chief executive said that ex-president Lula’s promise that, if elected, Brazilians would go back to eating “picanha” is “soft talk”. Bolsonaro also said that “the left sells the illusion of picanha to everyone”.

The day before, Lula had cited the beef cut as an example of luxury that Brazilians will have access to if they return to the Planalto Palace.

“It’s the only reason why I want to be president again, is to fix this country”, said PT in an interview with “Jornal Nacional”, on TV Globo. “This country has to grow again, it has to be happy again, it has to generate jobs again. The people, I always say: the people have to go back to eating a barbecue, eating a steak and having a beer”.

At the opening of the event promoted by entities from the port and logistics sectors, Guedes also defended the policies adopted under his management. “We believe that fiscal sustainability on the one hand is what unlocks this market dynamics through the private sector and market economy on the other hand,” he said.

According to the minister, the spending ceiling was “very poorly constructed” and the government is reinforcing the fiscal architecture. The head of the economic portfolio also stated that the spirit of the fiscal anchor was maintained, although the ceiling was breached, first to reduce the participation of the federal government by expanding the transfer of resources to states and municipalities and, subsequently, with spending on the pandemic. of Covid-19.

Guedes repeated the rhetoric used in the early years of the Bolsonaro government, when he said that Brazilians were “200 million exploited Muggles”.

“We don’t want a country, we said this during the campaign, which has 200 million muggles being exploited by two oil companies, six banks, four construction companies. We want competition, which is the way to have prosperity for the population. right way,” he said.

The minister also said at the event that he does not intend to privatize Brazilian beaches, but the land that belongs to the Union.

“Extremely valuable land spread across Brazil belongs to the federal government. If we sell this, a large foreign group wants to buy land on the edge of the beach for 1 billion. The beach is public, everyone can bathe there, but there will be a hotel up front,” he said.

In an interview with Flow Podcast, in September, the minister said that it would be possible to raise US$ 1 billion (R$ 5.28 billion) with the sale of a beach in “an important area” of the country.

Based on Guedes’ speech, Lula called the idea of ​​”selling the beach” “stupidity”.

This Wednesday, the minister implicitly countered: “A candidate totally unprepared [dizendo que] Paulo Guedes who privatized the beach. Fool. It is not privatizing beaches, beaches will always be public. On the contrary, the land in front of the beach belongs to the Navy”.