Zema says that Minas Gerais does not want to live ‘at the expense of the State’ – 06/15/2023 – Politics

Less than two weeks after praising the South and Southeast and saying that in the states of these regions there are more people working than receiving emergency aid, the Governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), said this Thursday (15) that the Minas Gerais wants to live “at the expense of the State”.

“Emergency aid is important, but I’m sure it’s not what the people of Minas Gerais want most”, he declared. “What people from Minas Gerais want is this autonomy, this dignity, saying I am the master of my destiny, I am the master of my life, and not being a being who lives at the expense of the State”, he said.

On the last day 2, during a meeting of governors from the South and Southeast, Zema was the target of criticism from oppositionists, who pointed out prejudiced content in his speeches about beneficiaries of emergency aid.

This time, the statement was given to the audience of the business community, who applauded him for his comment, during an announcement of investments by the steel company Gerdau in Belo Horizonte.

At the beginning of the month, at the opening of Cosud (South and Southeast Integration Consortium), which brought together the governors of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Minas, Zema had said that the seven states are the ones that can help Brazil to develop.

“If there are states that can contribute to this country’s success, I believe these seven states are here. They are states where, unlike the vast majority, there is a much greater proportion of people working than living on emergency aid,” he said.

After the repercussions of the statement and being accused of prejudice, Zema, who is trying to make himself viable as a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic in 2026, said that he was misunderstood.

On Thursday, the governor said that a good government is not just providing social assistance.

“The State does need to assist people who, due to different conditions, are unable to work, to support themselves, but we cannot fall into the trap that a good government is a government that only provides social assistance”, he declared.

“A good government for me is a government that provides jobs, provides jobs for people, and not a dependency relationship. We need to separate this very well,” he said.