Bolsa Família: ‘minister has strength to face centrão’ – 08/14/2023 – Market

Responsible for managing Bolsa Família, secretary Eliane Aquino defended Minister Wellington Dias (Development and Social Assistance) from attacks by the centrão, who covet the command of the portfolio.

“Wellington is a fantastic minister in terms of looking at public policy, looking at the needs of this population”, he says in an interview with Sheet. “Minister Wellington has that look and that political strength to face the centrão’s way of doing politics.”

Aquino is the National Secretary of Citizenship Income for the portfolio. Before, she was vice-governor of Sergipe and has already occupied the secretariats of social assistance in the state and in the capital, Aracaju (SE).

She points out that the folder is responsible not only for the income transfer program, but also for the management and structuring of Suas (Unified Social Assistance System), a protection network for the most vulnerable families — something equivalent to what the SUS (Unified System of Health) represents for health.

According to the secretary, Suas underwent a process of dismantling in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, and it would be a setback for the country if the most recent restructuring work was threatened by political disputes.

Without a solid parliamentary base in the National Congress, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) negotiates the shipment of centrão acronyms that still do not have positions in the first echelon of the government, such as the PP, of the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP -AL), and the Republicans.

Social Development is one of the main demands of the PP, although there is resistance from the PT to handing over a central ministry to the government’s social flags to another party.

Even if the centrão is not in charge of the Bolsa Família portfolio, the exchange of Wellington Dias is still a possibility.

To close aides at the Planalto Palace, Lula has complained that the minister needs to be more focused and boost positive agendas. As the MDS holds one of the government’s main showcases, Lula expected the folder to be a storehouse of ads to boost the president’s image, which has not been happening — in the assessment of the chief executive.

Within the MDS, the assessment is that political time is different from public policy time. After a succession of major structural changes in Bolsa Família in a short period, Eliane Aquino says that the new government needed to adjust the gears, both in the daily functioning of the ministry and in the social program.

“If a car has an engine problem, you can have the dream you want to reach another location. If your car isn’t clinking, you won’t arrive”, he says.

Under Bolsonaro, the Bolsa Família portfolio was headed by four ministers: Osmar Terra, Onyx Lorenzoni, João Roma and Ronaldo Vieira Bento. The period was marked by the pandemic and the increase in poverty and hunger.

In April 2020, Bolsa Família gave way to Auxílio Emergencial, which ended in October 2021. In November of the same year, Bolsonaro launched Auxílio Brasil —a way of trying to erase the social mark of PT administrations— and boosted transfers of income to families in an election year.

The movement, however, was not accompanied by the expansion of resources to support the assistance network in the municipalities, the main point of contact between the public authorities and vulnerable families. There was the opposite movement: the funds dwindled.

Dias inherited a social program with distortions to be corrected, after the disorderly growth of beneficiary families (mainly single-person families), and a care network scrapped by the lack of money in previous years.

The Bolsa Família secretary defends him by saying that, when he governed the state of Piauí, the minister contributed to social progress. “When we look at data from Piauí and the entire Northeast before the Lula government, we remember the scenes of drought, hunger and death. After the entry of governors more aligned with the PT, the Northeast took a leap, due to the policies that became much more connected with the federal government. And Piauí was one of the states that advanced the most”, he says.

At the MDS, she cites as the main challenges the reconstruction of the Bolsa, reformulated in March, the restructuring of Suas and the creation of new areas in the ministry, especially that of socioeconomic inclusion.

“It’s very daring to bring an inclusion area closer to people who are starving. We are going to create jobs for this public that is in the Single Registry and Bolsa Família, to demystify the idea that people don’t want to work. Studies show that they they had been working since they were 11 years old. The problem is that they never had opportunities”, says Aquino.

The Ministry of Social Development remains on the target of the centrão, according to Lula’s assistants.

A possible solution suggested behind the scenes would be to transfer Bolsa Família to the Civil House, headed by the PT, and leave the MDS with social assistance actions, such as the construction and maintenance of the Cras (Reference Centers for Social Assistance), service centers for families underprivileged and that act as a gateway to the Single Registry.

The niche arouses the interest of parliamentarians due to the possibility of irrigating their electoral strongholds with amendments and funds.

Lula’s allies in Planalto and PT reject the idea, even with the transfer of Bolsa Família to another portfolio under the party’s custody. They argue that the country’s main social program must be integrated with assistance policies. Faced with this impasse, there is still no forecast date for the announcement of the ministerial reform.