Opinion – Pedro Hallal: They only think about elections

The distance between Brasilia’s priorities and the priorities of the rest of Brazil is not new to anyone. But in this year of 2022, we may be experiencing the moment of greater distance between the interests of a (political) minority and the interests of the Brazilian people.

In the political environment, the only thing we talk about is the 2022 elections. In addition, the vast majority of pre-candidates’ actions are thinking about their vote, and not about their life. Polls of voting intentions are treated as a priority, and they change the behavior of pre-candidates and their parties. The best positioned in the electoral scenario are already starting to face the bargain for positions and future benefits in exchange for support.

Meanwhile, among the people, priorities are completely different:

• Brazil has returned to the world map of hunger, and many families have as their main priority ensuring food on the table for their children.
• The purchasing power of Brazilians was devastated during this pandemic. Buying meat has become synonymous with wealth and prices in supermarkets are increasingly distant from the salary of Brazilians.
• Millions of Brazilian families are looking for work, while the country faces one of the highest unemployment rates in its recent history.
• Those who managed to buy a car, or a motorcycle, find it difficult to use them, as the price of fuel is incompatible with their income.
• Brazilians whose business or leisure depends on the exchange rate are “chipped”, as the dollar price is the highest since the emergence of the Real.
• With the arrival of the omicron, Brazilians, who were already living with a less frightening reality of the Covid-19 pandemic, returned to live with daily deaths in the triple digits.
• Every day, Brazilians receive a flood of fake news, casting doubts on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19, and insisting on bogus treatments as the best way to face the pandemic.
• Mothers and fathers live daily dilemmas, about whether or not to take their children to school, about vaccinating their children or not, terrified by the pandemic and the false news that circulate daily about immunizers, many of them coming from the doctors themselves, who abandoned their oath and now they do politics in their offices.
• Thousands of Brazilian families are devastated by the Petrópolis tragedy, and priorities include having a place to live again, finding missing family members or mourning those who lost their lives.
• Some Brazilians dare to be worried about the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, even more so when Brazil is a pariah in international relations.
• Millions of Brazilians face problems arising from the pandemic, which range from psychological distress to learning difficulties. Thousands of young people are having to learn to live as orphans, and children are having to readjust to school.
• Millions of Brazilians live with what is conventionally called long-term Covid-19, with symptoms that persist, even after infection.

I could list many other priorities of people in Brazil here. But it seems these priorities are not priorities now. Politicians think that the people can afford to “pause” their lives and return to dealing with problems only after the elections.

But that’s not true.

The Brazilian people need a project for Brazil.

The Brazilian people need a country that works full time, and not just in periods when elections do not steal priority.

And the Brazilian people will only have that when they understand the strength they have.