Lula attacks Bolsonaro again, praises Janja and intimates Haddad and Paulo Teixeira

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) resumed this Tuesday (23) the attacks on Jair Bolsonaro (PL) even after more than a year at the head of the government. He called the former president “incompetent”, stated that he had no “governance” of the country and that he left a “broken” fund to start a new administration.

The attacks were made during an interview with a radio station in Bahia in which he praised local allies and the performance of First Lady Janja Lula da Silva, summoned ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance) and Paulo Teixeira (Agrarian Development) and commented on the election of São Paulo, in which he managed to bring former PT member Marta Suplicy back into national politics.

Lula said that he took over the government even before taking office after managing to submit the PEC in Congress to begin the new administration and implement the social policies he needed for the first year of the new term – for the first time in history, he says. This occurred due to what would have been Bolsonaro’s incompetence in leaving him a “broken” government.

“Because the former president was so incompetent that he had not left any money to meet his own debts, his own commitments”, said Lula, highlighting that there was a “dismantling” in public policies “for four years, [com] a president who didn’t care about doing anything.”

The PT member said that this supposed incompetence could be verified just by asking Brazilian mayors if they remember any infrastructure work carried out by Bolsonaro. The relationship with the lack of money and the approval of the PEC breaking the ceiling of R$ 168 billion was made when asked about the relationship with Congress, in which it was necessary to negotiate and release billions in parliamentary amendments to be able to approve projects of interest to the government.

Although he recognized last year that he needed to negotiate a lot with parliamentarians, Lula minimized the increased role of Congress in dictating and demanding more resources. For him, it is natural that there are conversations and that not all projects go through 100% the way the government would like, but that it managed to approve everything needed in 2023.

This, he says, is a relationship that the former president did not have with the Legislature, in which he “did not have governance” of the country. “The one who governed was the National Congress, the one who dictated the agenda was the Senate, he didn’t even have the capacity to discuss the Budget, because he didn’t want to or because it wasn’t part of his logic,” he said.

He also commented that he will have the “greatest pleasure” in explaining to parliamentarians why he vetoed an excerpt from the 2024 Budget that sent R$5.6 billion in amendments to the permanent committee of the Senate and Chamber and the permanent joint committee of Congress.

Still regarding the relationship with the Legislature, Lula said that he vetoed the law that established a time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands for “political reasons”, so people would know that he made this decision. “Now it will be up to the Supreme Court [STF]which gives good guarantees to indigenous people”, he pointed out.

At another time, Lula attacked Bolsonaro by citing the electoral dispute in São Paulo, in which he managed to unite his ally Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) with former PT member Marta Suplicy. For the first time in history, the PT will not have its own candidate to succeed the mayor of São Paulo.

“São Paulo is a direct confrontation between the former president and the current one, between me and the figure. […] The dispute is between a government that puts the people first and the government of fake news, of disaster, of the government that does not believe in the normal things that humanity has to believe”, he said, adding that he believes that the PT and its allies will win the city ​​halls of many Brazilian capitals.

Lula intimates Haddad and Paulo Teixeira

Still during the interview, Lula sent direct messages to the Ministers of Finance and Agrarian Development, respectively, highlighting the campaign promises that he says will have to be fulfilled.

Haddad was in relation to the Income Tax exemption for those earning up to two minimum wages. The exemption was valid following the values ​​in force last year, up to R$ 1,903.98. However, with the adjustment approved this year, it rose to R$2,640, which would make many Brazilians be charged again.

Lula, however, says that he ordered the minister to review the rule and maintain the exemption – which was confirmed by Haddad in an interview with TV Cultura on Monday night (22).

“Haddad knows we have to make these adjustments. They’re hard because we need to know [que]when we give up some money, we have to know where we are going to get the other money from”, he said.

He also confirmed that he intends to reach the end of his term by exempting those who earn up to R$5,000 from Income Tax. “It is a campaign commitment, but, above all, a commitment of sincerity”, he pointed out.

Another minister summoned by Lula during the interview was Paulo Teixeira, who ordered him to carry out a complete survey of unproductive private land and Union properties that could be used to carry out agrarian reform and settle families from allied social movements, such as the MST.

The president also said that he will ask the government to carry out another similar survey, but of unused land and public buildings in cities that can be sold or converted for public access. The INSS alone, he said, has more than three thousand properties. “We have to get this back to the people,” he said.

Janja, the political first lady

The political activism of First Lady Janja Lula da Silva was also not left out of the interview, similar to other past events in which he mentions her whenever he has the opportunity. Lula once again praised his wife’s role in day-to-day Brazilian politics in the Alvorada and Planalto palaces, saying that they talk daily and that she tells him “things that my advisors don’t talk about”.

“She is concerned about politics, she also lives politics 24 hours a day. […] She charges me, you have no idea, when the
[Ricardo] Stuckert [fotógrafo oficial do presidente] take a photo of me and there’s only men. She is horrified that there was no woman to put in the photo, because only men,” she said.

Lula highlighted that Janja “has to talk a lot more because she is a political activist, she likes politics, she does politics, she has to state her position”.

Janja’s actions have already provoked behind-the-scenes crises, such as the one that advised him against accepting a Law and Order Guarantee Operation (GLO) during the acts of January 8, 2023, the suspension of import tax collection on purchases personal online services from abroad for up to US$50, command of a ministerial delegation to Rio Grande do Sul to help after disasters caused by heavy rains, among others.