Lula debates social networks in a daily meeting in Planalto – 02/18/2023 – Politics

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) began to receive information about the repercussions on social networks of government acts in daily meetings at the Planalto Palace. In his first month and a half in government, Lula has also prioritized agendas with palace ministers, with PT congressmen and events with militants and social movements.

Lula has started his work days in his third term with meetings with ministers Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) and Paulo Pimenta (Special Secretariat for Social Communication).

In these meetings, assistants update PT members on the main political movements and the repercussions of government actions in the press. Pimenta also takes advantage of the moment to present a report to the representative on how certain actions taken by the administration are seen on social networks.

A direct advisor recalls that, when Lula ended his second term, Orkut was the most used social network in Brazil. Unlike his predecessor, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Lula does not hide his lack of familiarity with networks.

In an interview with an influencer during the campaign, the presenter asked the petista to present his account on a platform to the public. Lula said she didn’t know and that photographer Ricardo Stuckert was in charge of her networks.

The assessment is that, now, the president can no longer ignore the impact of the networks when analyzing how his government has been evaluated by the population.

The daily briefings with Padilha and Pimenta usually take place at the Planalto Palace at 9am, lasting an hour or two. Both ministers are the ones who met with Lula the most, according to the official agenda.

According to assistants, these meetings are also important to fine-tune the president’s speech, since the ministers point out what should gain relevance in the public debate.

Another minister who plays a major part in Lula’s agenda is the head of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT). He appears in ten meetings with Lula. Advisors point out, however, that Lula talks to the former governor of Bahia at various times throughout the day, by telephone and in unscheduled meetings.

Acts in the Planalto with social movements and PT militants were also a constant feature of the beginning of this Lula government.

On Monday (13), Lula signed public policy decrees for garbage collectors. Members of cooperatives crowded the second floor of the Planalto Palace.

“This is the first step of a very long journey that we have to take so that you are transformed into full citizens, this is just the beginning. We have four years for you to charge. Because you know that it is not in any government that you will be able to enter the Planalto Palace”, said the president at the time.

“Your entry here means, once and for all, that the Brazilian people are participating in the reconstruction of this country, because it was dismantled”, he added, referring to his predecessor’s government.

Lula has also received trade union centrals, an event in which he stated that he was fighting with the party’s economists saying it was necessary to “change the logic” of the Income Tax, in addition to making the richest pay more.

At another time, he participated in the signing of the decrees that created the Social Participation Council.

The PT also dominates Lula’s official meetings with congressmen.

Among the congressmen who get a space on the Chief Executive’s agenda, the expressive majority are from the PT: the deputy and president of the party Gleisi Hoffmann (PR); and deputies Rui Falcão (SP) and Carlos Zarattini (SP), for example.

Lula met with leaders of grassroots parties at the Coalition Political Council meeting, where representatives of 14 parties were present. In addition to PT, PSB, MDB, União Brasil, PDT, Patriota, Solidariedade, PSD, PV, Cidadania, PSOL, Podemos, PC do B, Avante and Rede.

Among the ministers, PT members were also the ones who were most often received by Lula. Of the 37 portfolio holders, 25 appear in closed meetings with the president on his public agenda —a privilege enjoyed by all PT supporters on the Esplanada.

After Padilha, Pimenta and Rui Costa, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, is the fourth most received by Lula. So far, he has had seven meetings with the representative – in the last week alone, there have been three.

According to palace assistants, the agendas dealt with the minimum wage, changes in the Income Tax, the inflation target and Bolsa Família.

The new social program should be announced after Carnival, as Lula himself said recently. The social program will have, in addition to the minimum payment of R$600 per family, an additional R$150 per child up to six years old, a campaign promise.

The recent meetings with the Minister of Finance also took place in the wake of a crisis between the Chief Executive and the President of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto.

Among the ministers who did not have a closed-door agenda with Lula since the beginning of the government, are Social Security, Carlos Lupi (PDT), Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), and Tourism, Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil ).

Daniela and Juscelino were involved in the first controversies involving Lula’s top echelon.

As shown to Sheet, at least R$ 42 million indicated by Juscelino irrigated contracts with contractors that are at the center of suspected irregularities in works by the federal state-owned Codevasf (Companhia de Desenvolvimento dos Vales do São Francisco e do Parnaíba). Daniela, on the other hand, was identified as having ties to the militia in Baixada Fluminense, in Rio de Janeiro.