Minister says that Lula asks why agribusiness does not like him and that he wants to get closer| Photo: André Borges/EFE

The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, said that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) usually asks why agribusiness does not like him and that he is trying to reach a rapprochement with the sector even in the midst of controversial speeches. The statement was made during participation in the program Roda Viva, on TV Cultura, on Monday night (22).

Fávaro was questioned about Lula’s successive statements against agribusiness entrepreneurs from the 2022 election campaign to the most recent ones, in which he classified Agrishow organizers as “fascists and denialists”. He also spoke out against the presence of ministers at the Landless Workers Movement (MST) fair in São Paulo two weeks ago.

“The president successively asks us to be close to the agro, he wants to get closer, he asks me why they don’t like him, what he did”, he said.

Carlos Fávaro admitted that Lula issues “a little stronger” phrases, but that “he has to be respected” for the actions he took for agribusiness in the first two terms, including the granting of credit with interest of 2.5% per year, infrastructure for harvesting, among others.

The minister also said that businessmen in the sector have a vision of “Lula in the 1980s, when he had a much stronger ideological bias towards the left”, which is different from what was elected in 2002. Fávaro also stated that Lula has sought a “pacification in the countryside” and is in favor of agrarian reform without the need for invasion, but without saying so publicly.