Bolsonaro promises real gain in minimum wage after repercussion of Guedes plan

A little less than ten days before the second round of the elections, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) promised this Thursday (20) to grant a real increase in the minimum wage and for the civil service next year.

Speech takes place one day after Sheet to reveal a plan by Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) that foresees, among other things, a change in the policy of readjusting the minimum wage and pensions, which would no longer be corrected for the inflation of the previous year.

Jair Bolsonaro accused the left of spreading fake news, but confirmed that the economics head intends to de-index the readjustment of the minimum wage.

In the 2023 Budget proposal, sent by the government to Congress in August, there is no forecast of a real increase in the minimum wage. The proposed amount, of R$ 1,302, amends the fourth year in a row without gains above inflation.

The last time the national floor was readjusted above the price hike was in early 2019, in a decree signed by Bolsonaro, following the valuation policy approved by law during the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government.

The promise of the president, who is running for reelection, took place during his participation on Thursday night in the podcast Inteligência Ltda. He spoke about the difficulties of working with a bloated public machine and pointed out that he practically did not hold public tenders —with the exception of some categories in the security area— when he pointed out that, after years of salary losses, the civil service would receive a real increase in their salaries, as well as the minimum wage.

“So, it was a way for you to dry a little [não realizar concursos públicos], without any prejudice to public servants. Zero harm to public servants. So much so that just now, Paulo Guedes, given this, announced that next year there will be a real increase in the minimum and a real increase for public servants as well”, he said in the program.

The Economy Minister, however, did not declare that he will give a real increase in the minimum wage or the civil service this Thursday. During an event in Rio de Janeiro, Guedes denied that there is a plan to change the correction “during the game”, but admitted to being in favor of de-indexing.

During the podcast, Bolsonaro also described the lack of readjustments as “fake news” and attributed the dissemination of information to the left.

“A fake news today. Everything is Bolsonaro. ‘Bolsonaro will lower the minimum wage’. There is no point in lowering the minimum wage. There is no such thing. Who would vote for a proposal to lower the minimum wage? So, it was fake news preached by that one. same guy, like [André] Janones, right, who is the poster boy, Lula’s marketer. And Paulo Guedes has just given the statement that, starting next year, the minimum wage will be readjusted, the real value. As well as the public servant”, he said again, at another point in the podcast.

At another time, Jair Bolsonaro also confirmed that Minister Paulo Guedes intends to de-index the readjustment of the minimum wage from the inflation of the previous period.

“Paulo Guedes talks a lot about de-indexing the economy. So what does he want to de-index? The percentage remains undefined. And, at the moment, you are guaranteed at least […] at least there will be a real increase, more than inflation. Real increase is more than inflation,” she said.

Such as Sheet showed, Minister Guedes is working on an ambitious plan to recast legislation on the country’s public accounts. The intention is to reformulate the spending ceiling and “break the floor”, that is, to stop the growth of expenses that today put pressure on the Budget – including social security benefits or benefits linked to the minimum wage.

The minister treats the matter as a legacy of his administration, but the proposal should only be made official if Bolsonaro wins on October 30th. In that case, a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) would be presented the day after the election.

The design of the new fiscal architecture would remove the need for an extra-ceiling spending license (called a “waiver”) — although the plan also establishes a number of new exceptions to the spending cap, in addition to minor correction of some spending.

In this way, it is estimated within the portfolio that it would be possible to accommodate about R$ 100 billion additional within the ceiling in 2023, honoring electoral promises such as maintaining the Auxílio Brasil floor at R$ 600, the payment of a 13th for female beneficiaries and the recomposition of funds for programs such as Farmácia Popular.

One of the main measures under study is the de-indexation of the minimum wage and social security benefits. Today, they are corrected by the INPC (National Consumer Price Index) of the previous year, which guarantees at least the replacement of the loss due to the increase in prices observed among families with incomes of up to five minimum wages.

Audience surpasses Lula

The edition of the Inteligência Ltda podcast reached a total of 1.5 million simultaneous viewers, surpassing the mark of its rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in Flow, two days earlier.

Participating in podcasts in these elections became a reason for war between campaigns and a demonstration of strength on the internet. On Tuesday night (18), Lula participated in Flow and the audience exceeded one million simultaneous viewers.

Jair Bolsonaro has already participated, for example, in Flow, in Pilhado and also participated in a pool of sports podcasts. In this latest event, on Friday (14), the president made the controversial statement that he “painted an atmosphere” with Venezuelan teenagers and accused them of prostituting themselves.

The representative later recorded a video apologizing.

With less than 10 days to go until the second round of the elections, Jair Bolsonaro follows behind Lula in the polls, despite having fluctuated upwards. A Datafolha survey, released on Wednesday (19), showed that PT currently has 49% against 45% of the representative.