“Government started a bridge with agro”, assesses FPA on MST fair

The participation of the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and ministers of the Lula government (PT) in the national fair of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) during the weekend has the potential to strain even more the relationship between the president and the agribusiness sector.

The second vice-president of the Agribusiness Parliamentary Front (FPA), Evair de Melo (PP-ES), said this Saturday (14th), in an interview with the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, that the government “hauled the bridge with agro and there is no more dialogue”.

“It’s the photograph we needed to prove the government’s involvement with the MST in these land invasions”, he said, commenting on the photo of Alckmin next to one of the MST leaders, João Pedro Stédile.

In addition to the photo, Alckmin’s comment on the MST’s CPI also affronted the parliamentarians on the bench, who articulate the installation of the investigation commission in the Chamber of Deputies. According to the vice-president, the job of the Legislature is to make laws, not “policing”. “There are already many supervisory bodies”, concluded Alckmin, who should meet parliamentarians from the agro bench this Tuesday (16).

In addition to Alckmin, the MST’s fair was also attended by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Lula’s nominee to take over the Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, the Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França and the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira.

During the event, Teixeira said that the actions of the MST in “Red April”, the month in which the movement increased the number of invasions, is “surpassed”. “We asked the groups to withdraw from Embrapa and Suzano lands and they withdrew,” he said. However, he was countered by Stédille, who said he would invite the minister to the next “Red April”.