Lula uses machine to caress evangelicals, military and agro – 07/12/2023 – Politics

President Lula (PT) made political gestures and released billionaire funds in the first six months of his administration to try to stroke agribusiness, military and evangelical members, the three sectors that represent the pillars of support for Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The former president was elected in 2018 and ran for re-election with a speech aimed at these segments of society, which mostly opposed the PT throughout the campaign.

After the opposition suffered in the campaign, Lula has been articulating and using the public machine to advance in the Bolsonarist electorate and empty the political strength of his main opposition — a movement that adds to the negotiation of positions with centrão parties to expand the support base in the Congress.

On one front, Lula launched, at the end of June, the Crop Plan 2023/2024 with R$ 364.22 billion to finance the agricultural activity of medium and large producers. The value, as anticipated by the Sheetis record.

The expectation, according to members of the government, is that the total will be between R$ 420 billion and R$ 430 billion when also adding the amounts for family farming – which would represent a strong increase in relation to the previous package, the R$ 340.9 billion released by Bolsonaro for the 2022/2023 harvest.

The president of the ruralist group, deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), says that there is an understanding with the Executive when the subject is technical.

“The government does its part. The harvest was good, of course, as well as other things we are negotiating. At Carf [o órgão administrativo final de análise de litígios tributários], we were able to place some demands on agriculture, such as royalties for seeds, all with negotiation and conversation. If we didn’t have 380 members on the bench, nobody would talk to us,” he said.

Lupion, however, refuses that these are government gestures. “They are not. They do it because it is the Executive, the government, it is an obligation. Are you going to say that Bolsonaro, when he attended a settlement, was a gesture to the left?”, He said.

Lula always says that his obligation is to dialogue with all sectors of society, including those who oppose his government. If, on the one hand, there is this search for pragmatic action, on the other, the PT sometimes slips up in words and repeats campaign speeches.

Ruralist leaders remember that, during the electoral campaign, Lula referred to part of the sector as “fascist and rightist”.

In June of this year, he said that the agribusiness problem with his management is “ideological” and not linked to economic issues.

“I realize what we’ve done [para o agronegócio]. Their problem with us is ideological, it is not a problem of too much money in Plano Safra. I don’t care if the rural producer likes me or not,” he said at the time.

Important sectors of agribusiness supported Bolsonaro in weight. In the parade on September 7th of last year, for example, in which coup demonstrations were called, Bolsonaro determined the inclusion of tractors in the military parade, as a gesture to the sector.

In the midst of an effort to balance public accounts and increase the Union’s coffers, the Lula government also gave up money to please evangelicals.

In the negotiation of the tax reform, the government supported the expansion of tax immunity for churches against the collection of federal, state and municipal taxes (including IPTU).

Deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), who was once leader of the evangelical group and had been criticizing the president’s attitude towards the faithful, says that the government’s support for the reform amendment is an important signal.

“I have to be fair. In fact, the government did not seem to want to get closer to us, but it demonstrated a great deal this week and we are expecting the Executive to actually take action so that Brazil understands that Lula is returning to being the Lula, peace and love,” he says.

The current wording of the Constitution speaks of “temples of any cult”. The Chamber approved a change in the text to also include religious entities and charitable and charitable organizations linked to these entities.

According to the explanation of technicians, the current immunity only reaches the temple itself, and the change extends the benefit “beyond the walls of the church”.

Behind the scenes Lula is still evaluating whether to make another important nod to evangelicals with the nomination of the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) in October, in the vacancy of Minister Rosa Weber. Lula sent him as a representative for the March for Jesus, in early June.

In the case of the military, the relationship that was already bad in last year’s campaign became even worse in early 2023 with the invasion of the headquarters of the three Powers on January 8.

The Bolsonarists who destroyed the palaces were gathered in front of the headquarters in Brasilia, just as there were similar mobilizations in other cities, since the end of the election, asking for an intervention against Lula’s inauguration.

The petista said that he did not accept to issue a GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order) decree because he said that he would not have power back.

Lula stated that his commitment to the Armed Forces was to depoliticize them and sought to restrict them to institutional action, which ended up pleasing important sectors of the barracks, after years of wear and tear with Bolsonarist politicization.

Lula’s first gesture to the Armed Forces was the choice of a name from outside the PT and with no history of militancy on the left for the Ministry of Defense, José Múcio.

At another time, when he dismissed the then minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), General Gonçalves Dias, Lula resisted pressure from allies to put an end to the body as it is today —the folder, for decades, was called of Military House.

Another demand was that, at least, the body be commanded by a military man, which ended up happening.

General Marco Antônio Amaro dos Santos took over, who won the arm wrestling match with the PF (Federal Police) in the dispute over who would be in charge of presidential security.

In addition, the government has been working to secure resources for the defense industry. In the New PAC (Growth Acceleration Program), which should be launched this month, the Planalto included investments in defense as one of the axes of the program, which is one of the showcases of Lula 3.

The implementation of priority projects for the Army, Navy and Air Force was the responsibility of the vice president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and Múcio.