Lula uses works and programs of past governments in visits to the states

This week, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) started a movement to try to create a positive agenda for his government through the resumption of paralyzed works and the revamped launch of programs from the former PT administrations. So far, the Planalto Palace has already designed strategies for it to visit several states, including Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Sergipe.

“We are going to try to finish everything that was started and was stopped. And we don’t want to know in what period of government it was done, we want to know if the work is of interest to the city or the state”, said Lula this Wednesday (8), by confirming a meeting with ministries in the area of ​​infrastructure next week to align the theme.

The PT’s first agenda took place this Monday (6), in Rio de Janeiro, for the inauguration of the Super Centro Carioca de Saúde. It is a space dedicated to procedures and medical specialties with greater demand.

The complex was built with a municipal investment of BRL 486 million, but Lula took advantage of the inauguration of the works to launch a federal government program to reduce the queues for exams and elective surgeries of the Unified Health System (SUS).

In all, the government intends to distribute R$ 600 million for states and municipalities to expand the so-called joint efforts of care for various medical specialties.

“We had managed to bring basic health care to 70% coverage in the city of Rio. The four years of the previous government brought this down to around 40%. Today, the city government’s goal is to return by the end of next year. to the same 70% of 2016”, said the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD).

“President Lula launched a support program for city halls and state governments precisely to put an end to this Brazilian drama that is the problem of regulation”, said the mayor referring to the Sisreg regulation system, a system that aims to reduce the waiting time for access to medical procedures with greater demand.

Ceiling-breaking PEC made funds available for Lula’s programs

The amount that Lula intends to pass on to the states and municipalities was made possible during the transition period, when the PT party negotiated the approval of the PEC with the National Congress. In all, the proposal increased the budget for social programs by R$ 168 billion in 2023.

The Planalto Palace has been betting on Lula’s travels through the states of Brazil as a way to increase the government’s popularity. In addition to the mayor of the Rio de Janeiro capital, Governor Cláudio Castro (PL) accompanied the PT’s agenda in the city.

“I want to say that Petrobras will return to work here in Rio de Janeiro. The BNDES [Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social] will return to make investments in the productive sector. We will go back to building ships in the shipyards here in Rio de Janeiro. I speak to you [Eduardo Paes e Claudio Castro]present projects, because if you have a project, money will be released,” said Lula.

Unfinished works by the Dilma administration will be reused by Lula in Bahia

On another front, Lula is going to take advantage of works that were contracted during the administration of former president Dilma Rousseff to relaunch the Minha Casa Minha Vida program, on the 14th, in Bahia.

The agenda was scheduled to take place in January, but because of “precariousness” in construction in the city of Feira de Santana, the Civil House ended up postponing the PT’s visit to the state.

The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, even paid a visit to Bahia to supervise the works of the housing program. In Feira de Santana, for example, a housing complex has more than 200 apartments that had been contracted during the Dilma administration. But, they were not delivered and were closed and not maintained. Now they need renovations.

“I came to see the installations up close, and this set here in Feira de Santana cannot be delivered in a week, which was our expectation. It will be necessary to replace the stolen material, since surveillance has been withdrawn. Caixa Econômica and with Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues so that we can deliver these homes as soon as possible”, said Costa in the note released in January.

Petista will relaunch Minha Casa Minha Vida

After the inspection, the governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), said that a joint effort was made so that Lula could make the delivery during his visit to the state. “We made a joint effort with Caixa Econômica, with the city halls and with the state government to guarantee this delivery. The expectation is that on the 14th the president will relaunch the Minha Casa Minha Vida program and already with the actual delivery of houses from the program in Bahia”, explained the governor.

Thus, Lula will use the visit to the state to publicize new rules for Minha Casa Minha Vida. The expectation is that the changes will mainly benefit the so-called Tier 1, which is aimed at lower-income families and whose value is almost entirely subsidized.

For this, one of the measures that should be announced will be the increase in the maximum value of properties contracted in this range, in an attempt by the Executive to resume the interest of construction companies in this public.

In the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Minha Casa Minha Vida was replaced by Casa Verde Amarela, which focused on higher income brackets. Currently, the program finances real estate worth a maximum of R$96,000 for Tier 1 homes. The government pays 90% of the amount. Lula’s allies consider the value low and defend that the new ceiling revolves around R$ 150 thousand.

“The program returns next Tuesday. The president will announce his guidelines and soon after sign a provisional measure defining the new levels, goals, guidelines of the new Minha Casa Minha Vida”, said Rui Costa.

Duplication of BR-101, in Sergipe, should only be completed in 2024

Thus, after passing through Bahia, Lula will visit Sergipe on February 15th. There, he should announce the release of new resources for the duplication works of the BR-101, which crosses the state. Contracts for works in the region were signed in 2014, through the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) of the Dilma government, and so far have not been completed.

“We are resuming works that were at a standstill and we are going to beat a record in the application of resources to guarantee improvements in our highways, which, due to the low investments in recent years, present the worst quality indicators. We have 66% of the road network in poor or terrible condition. We are going to revitalize the road network”, said Transport Minister Renan Filho.

In May last year, then-president Jair Bolsonaro was in the region for the clearance of a 40-kilometer stretch of highway. At the time, the government announced an investment of R$ 203.8 million in the works. Now, Lula is expected to announce the release of another R$ 250 million to complete the duplication. But, it should only occur in mid-2024.

In addition to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Sergipe, the Civil House is preparing Lula’s visits to other states. He is getting ready for a series of deliveries and resumption of works after Carnival. Among the investments to be announced in travel is the resumption of the “Water for All” program. The program brings together preventive and drought-fighting measures, such as the construction of cisterns, in the most arid regions of the country.