Lula says Bolsonaro government promoted ‘scientific blackout’ that resulted in Covid deaths

At an event held by the scientific community, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Thursday (28) that the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government was responsible for a blackout in the area and is responsible for part of the nearly 680,000 coronavirus deaths in Brazil during the pandemic.

“The most tragic result of this scientific blackout that we are suffering today is the almost 680 thousand Brazilians killed by Covid. Many of them because the current president ignored all the recommendations of the scientific community, reaching the height of boycotting vaccines, which saved millions of lives at the same time. around the world”, said PT.

The speech was made during a meeting with the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC), which was also attended by the former minister of Dilma Rousseff (PT), Renato Janine Ribeiro —now president of the entity— and Aloizio Mercadante, current coordinator of Lula’s campaign.

The former president also criticized the approval of the spending cap —”which takes from the rich to give to the poor”—the so-called secret budget, and said he would no longer privatize public companies, one of the current government’s economic agendas.

For Lula, the process of dismantling public institutions began with the “coup”, the impeachment against President Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, and reaches its apex with Bolsonaro, who “placed Brazil in a time machine towards the past”.

“Hunger, unemployment, destruction of labor rights, inflation, corruption and threats to democracy are the marks of this mismanagement that denies science in all its acts”, he said.

Lula said that, with the officialization of his new electoral endeavor, he no longer wants to be called a “pre-candidate”, but a “candidate”. And he made fun of the fact that Bolsonaro said that there is no corruption in the current government: “It seems that he doesn’t know the family he has”.

“For any and all denunciations near him, he, by decree, decrees a hundred-year secrecy, which is something we are going to do a ‘revocation’. [destas medidas]”, he stated.

Finally, the former president and current presidential candidate stated that science and the strengthening of public universities are essential for strengthening democracy and national sovereignty.

The SBPC called the three presidential candidates with the most points in the polls to participate in debates, and Lula, who leads according to the latest Datafolha, was the first. Ciro Gomes (PDT), in third, will be present at the event this Friday (29).

According to the organizers of the event, Jair Bolsonaro did not respond to the invitation.

The presence at the event is a nod from Lula to the scientific community and marks once again opposition to Bolsonaro’s positions during the pandemic.

The current president defended the use of drugs with no proven effectiveness against the coronavirus, such as chloroquine, was against social isolation and several times disrespected the use of face masks – all positions criticized by scientists and researchers.

Lula was interviewed by former Minister of Education Renato Janine Ribeiro, in the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government, and received a document from him with proposals for public policies.

In it, the SBPC deals with 12 themes, which “must be inserted in the construction, consolidation and strengthening of democracy and in the need for social inclusion”.

The document brings proposals for the conduction of science, education, health, environment, climate change, public security, gender and racial diversity, indigenous issues, culture and human rights.

“The objective is to demand from actors who wish to enter or remain in the political scenario after the 2022 elections, the commitment to these guidelines, through the signature of the candidates”, says the text.

During his speech, Lula committed himself to increasing the budget of institutions that promote research, such as the CNPQ, directing a portion of the pre-salt fund to science, expanding access to broadband internet and defending the “socio-productive inclusion of indigenous peoples” and family farmers.

Also on PT’s agenda is the PSB’s national convention, this Friday (29), party of his deputy, Geraldo Alckmin. There are still some loose ends in the alliance between the two parties in some states.

One of them began to be resolved last Wednesday (27), when the PT leadership was informed of the withdrawal of the pre-candidacy of former federal deputy Beto Albuquerque for the Government of Rio Grande do Sul.

According to a report by the national president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), the PT offered the PSB the vice on the ticket to the state government, headed by state deputy Edegar Pretto.

On Tuesday (26), Beto admitted to Sheet the dropout hypothesis. “Without resources, it won’t,” she said, acknowledging material difficulties for her campaign. There is an expectation that the obstacle will be resolved during Lula’s passage to Brasília.

Beto’s withdrawal would not represent automatic support from the PSB to the PT. In Rio Grande do Sul, part of the party works for an alliance with the toucan Eduardo Leite.

Another point that is still open is the assembly of the platform in Rio de Janeiro, a topic that should be debated by PT members next week.

At the request of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Carlos Siqueira landed in Rio this Wednesday with the mission of convincing federal deputy Alessandro Molon (PSB) to give up his candidacy for the Senate in favor of André Ceciliano ( PT).

By dissuading Molon, Siqueira intends to deflate the argument of PT members who are threatening to abandon Marcelo Freixo’s platform to the Government of Rio on the pretext that his party, the PSB, disrespected the agreement by which, within the ticket, the seat in the Senate would fall to the PT.

Furthermore, Lula will have meetings and meetings with representatives of Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), the National Transport Confederation and allied politicians.