Lula’s government accumulates slippages and is now seeking adjustments – 02/04/2023 – Politics

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) completed three months of management with controversial speeches by the representative, “genius” of ministers and a quest to reduce noise between ministries that are not always aligned with the Planalto Palace.

Allies are now working on strategies to reduce noise, with meetings to link ministers’ announcements and speeches to the Planalto Palace, in addition to seeking to reduce the number of commitments by Lula himself.

The most recent crisis fell to the Chief Executive himself, who cursed in an interview and then made conclusions about Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), former Lava Jato judge and now opposition senator.

In the first speech, in an interview with the Brasil 247 portal, Lula said that he would “fuck Moro”. At the time, he got emotional when he remembered the period he was imprisoned in Curitiba, he said he felt a lot of hurt, but he also learned a lot about resistance.

“Once in a while a prosecutor would go there on a Saturday, a weekday, to ask if everything was okay. Three or four attorneys would come in and ask: ‘Is everything okay?’ ‘[Eu respondia:] It is not alright. It’s only going to be okay when I fuck this Moro. Y’all cut out the word ‘fuck,'” he stated.

Despite the president’s signal to edit the video, the interview was being broadcast live.

Then, a Federal Police operation was launched that revealed the PCC’s plan to attack authorities, including the former Lava Jato judge.

Lula, that day, was in Rio de Janeiro for a visit to the Naval Complex of Itaguaí (RJ), where the Navy’s nuclear submarine program is developed.

Urged by journalists to comment on the operation, he said it was “another frame [de Moro]”. The president’s statement was privately criticized by allies, who saw in it the opposite effect of strengthening Moro and hiding the positive agenda of his visit to the Navy program.

The negative repercussions of the speeches and the public clash with Moro led allies to reassess some procedures. In an attempt to avoid inappropriate speeches by the representative, one of the hypotheses under analysis for the coming weeks is to reduce the number of appointments with Lula’s participation.

The assessment is that numerous events end up with repeated speeches by the president, opening a gap for improvisations and speeches outside the main theme. The objective then is to hold a few events during the week, in order to increase the focus of the speeches on what is being announced or celebrated.

In the range of controversial statements by Lula, there are others that were the target of the president’s own political field. In Roraima, for example, during the 52nd General Assembly of Indigenous Peoples, he said that the enslavement of the black population had Brazil’s miscegenation as a positive point.

On a visit to Raposa Serra do Sol land, Lula gave a speech in which he tried to exalt the original peoples and criticized the colonizers who, “500 years ago in this country”, “decided to sell the idea that it was necessary to bring slavery to Brazil because the natives were lazy, they didn’t like to work”.

“All the disgrace that this caused to the country, caused a good thing, which was the mixture, the miscegenation, the mixture between indigenous people, blacks and Europeans, which allowed these beautiful people to be born here, who like music, who like dancing , who likes to party, who likes respect, but who likes to work to support his family and not live in favor of anyone,” he said.

The episode led to criticism from activists, who said that there was no positive result from slavery and that the idea of ​​praising the mixing of races is linked to the myth of racial democracy – used in Brazilian history to deny the existence of racism.

Lula’s speeches add to noise within the government, which end up harming communication with the population, according to allies.

Ministers announced measures that had an impact and obtained popular support, only to retreat later, as the actions had not been sufficiently debated with the Planalto, had not received approval from the representative and some did not even have the means to be put into effect.

Lula called the episodes “genius”, when he scolded his top brass during a meeting, whose opening speech was televised.

The Chief Executive stated that he does not want “proposals from ministers”, but from the government and asked that they not announce public policies that have not been presented and received the approval of the Civil House.

The most notorious case was the plan by Minister Márcio França (Ports and Airports), who announced in an interview a program to offer airline tickets at R$200 to retirees, students and civil servants.

The measure would have great appeal, in particular with the middle class, who saw the increase in ticket prices and began to frequent airports less. However, without details on how it would be financed, it began to be bombarded by specialists and the sector.

Another case was the reduction in the payroll interest ceiling, announced and implemented by Minister Carlos Lupi (Labour and Social Security) in the wrong way, according to the president himself, without discussing it with the economic team and the political core of the government and with the banks. .

Such as Sheet showed, the episode took place in the midst of noise in the government. While Lupi understood that he had obtained Lula’s endorsement, the ‘okay’ was for him to better structure the proposal, dialogue with banks and the Treasury.

After these episodes, Secom (Secretary of Communication of the Presidency) then started to hold meetings with communications and heads of cabinet of the ministries, in order to unify the discourse and centralize the announcements.

Despite the setbacks, the Lula government 3 represented the return of institutional communication in the Federal Executive. The new management of the Secretariat of Communication, now under the tutelage of Paulo Pimenta, restructured the portfolio and resumed dialogue with the professional press.

During the government of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the rule was not to respond to the press.