Lula says he can sign up for Enem to learn economics

At a time when the government is facing internal disputes regarding the conduct of its fiscal policy, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Sunday (5), in a joking tone, that he may sign up for a next edition of the National High School Examination (Enem) to take a higher education course in economics.

The statement was made during the president’s visit to the headquarters of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) on the first day of exams for the current edition of Enem. “Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll even sign up to take an economics course, because they’re all very knowledgeable about economics,” he said.

“I always say that economists are the most knowledgeable people in the world. Because when we are in opposition we know everything, when we are in government it seems like we unlearn, and things don’t come very easily”, he added.

The government has been questioned in recent days regarding the possibility of changing the fiscal target for the year 2024, since Lula stated that it would “hardly” meet the objective established by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, of zeroing the primary deficit in the next exercise.

At the press conference at Inep, when asked by a journalist about the topic, Lula preferred not to answer. “Fiscal target asks me on Monday. Today is Enem day,” she said.

During the interview, the president was accompanied by the Ministers of Education, Camilo Santana, and the Secretary of Social Communication (Secom), Paulo Pimenta.