Lula starts doing lives to talk about the government and complains about the length of his term

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) did an interview-style live this Tuesday (13) to talk about the actions he has taken. The “Conversation with the President” begins after more than five months of government in which he has been witnessing a drop in popularity due to difficulties in articulating with Congress and emptying portfolios that he considered priorities during the campaign, such as the Environment and Indigenous Peoples.

The program, which promises to be weekly, is the adaptation of the format used by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to communicate with Brazilians through lives on the internet. The improvement in communication had been pointed out as a problem by Lula’s team, as there was no direct communication with voters except through media interviews and speeches at official events.

During the first edition of “Conversation with the President”, Lula commented on the execution of social programs since the beginning of the new government, again emphasized the objective of “delivering a better country in 2026”, and that he needs to look at all social classes – and not just for the most vulnerable people who were the focus of the first actions, such as the resumption of Bolsa Família and Minha Casa Minha Vida.

However, the president complained that a four-year term is not enough to carry out the actions he plans, without making it clear whether he intends to run for re-election in the next election.

“The problem is that the mandate is very short. In a country where you have all the legal difficulties to do any kind of work, to make an investment, where you have supervision, there is a Court of Auditors, which has an impediment, you have Congress which has to pass many things, the mandate of four years, sometimes you can’t get an important project approved,” he said.

Lula cited the mandate of former President Barack Obama, of the United States, who “almost did not approve any project”. The president says that he is “in a hurry” with the actions he intends to take, and that he usually passes this on to the ministers, and that he will ask them to speed up portfolio projects at the ministerial meeting next Thursday (15).

The president also said that he charges ministers with a workday that starts early and goes late due to the time he has in office. “No fear of frowns, no trouble,” he said.

Despite demanding agility from the ministers in the execution of the actions of the portfolios, Lula avoided talking (and was not questioned) about the difficulty of articulation that he has been having with the National Congress – especially with the Chamber of Deputies – to pass the projects of interest from the government. He also avoided commenting on the probable departure of Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil-RJ) from the Ministry of Tourism, who would have been authorized by him on Monday (12) due to pressure from União Brasil.

Projects under development

Still during the live, Lula said that the government will launch a new version of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) on July 2, which has already been aired behind the scenes and in some public statements by ministers since April. However, the president did not give details of how the new action will be carried out, only mentioning that he took over the government with 14,000 works stopped in the country.

Lula also commented that Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) also needs to cater to the Brazilian middle class that earns between R$7,000 and R$8,000, but without delving into the details of how the rules will be. The provisional measure that resumed the program was approved in the Chamber of Deputies last week and should be discussed in the Senate later this month.

“We need to be able to do things for these people too, thinking about all segments of society,” he said. According to the rules approved by the Chamber, the MCMV has an income range for families with a gross income of R$ 4,400 to up to R$ 8,000.

And he also commented that the Mercosur-European Union agreement should be closed by the end of the year after the meeting he had on Monday (12) with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He handed her a document with Brazil’s demands to be part of the agreement, such as continuing to prioritize government purchases from small and medium-sized Brazilian businessmen.