MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula's team releases government plan

Brazil's future lies with the strengthening of Mercosur, UNASUR, CELAC, and BRICS, in case of a new Lula administration

Brazil's opposition presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva has released his government plan, which includes international cooperation, new labor legislation, and differentiated taxation on the wealthiest.

The Workers' Party leader and former head of state also pointed out that Brazil was “devastated by a process of destruction” and that the current economic policy of Jair Bolsonaro “is the main responsible for the decomposition of the living conditions of the population, instability, and setbacks in production and consumption.”

The document was drafted jointly by members of the seven parties that make up the leftwing opposition coalition which, according to all polls, is poised to win the elections: Workers' Party (PT), Brazilian Socialist Party, Communist Party of Brazil, Green Party, Socialism and Liberty Party, Rede and Solidarity.

Lula's program also foresees that “it will not be difficult to recover our international credentials,” which have been affected by the “disastrous environmental and foreign policies of the current government” through the resumption of South-South cooperation with Latin America and Africa and the strengthening of Mercosur, of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).

“To defend our sovereignty is to defend the integration of South America, Latin America and the Caribbean, with a view to maintaining regional security and promoting an integral development of our region,” states the document, which also calls for new “alliances that are better for the country, without submission to anyone.”

“It is to work for the construction of a new global order committed to multilateralism, respect for the sovereignty of nations,” Lula's government plan also envisions, along with a call to “overcome authoritarianism and anti-democratic threats.”

Lula's team also vowed to promote a “political reform” that expands the instruments of participative democracy, in order to curb the dissemination of fake news through social media. “We need to resume the collective and participatory process of building public policies through the restoration of all instances of social participation extinguished by the current government.”

“The new government will propose, based on a broad debate and negotiation, a new labor legislation of social protection outreaching to all forms of occupation, employment and labor relationship,” including self-employed workers, household workers, and also those under the new home office modality, thus repealing the current labor legislation “aggravated by the latest reform and reestablishing free access to [the] labor justice” system, while restructuring labor grouping conditions to “ensure the right to strike and curb anti-union practices.”

A future Lula administration would also promote monetary subsidies for families in need, however detrimental to public accounts they may seem.

The document also proposes to “revoke the spending ceiling in the budget and review the current Brazilian tax regime”. In this sense, they propose the construction of a new regime: “Let's put the poor back in the budget and the super-rich paying taxes” through a plan to combat tax evasion and to increase income taxes on the “very rich.”

Regarding the price of fuel at pumps, a nightmare for the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro's reelection ambitions, Lula called for a change that would do away with “internationalized and dollarized pricing policies” and move to a model “that takes into account national costs and is adequate to expand investments.”

The leftwing coalition also foresees deepening the diversification of the energy matrix, “with the expansion of renewable sources at prices compatible with the Brazilian reality,” while opposing the privatization of Petrobras, the “warrantor of fuel supply in the country,” of Electoras, “the largest electricity generation company in Latin America” and of the Post Office Correios, “a company with an important social role.”

On the environmental front, Lula's advisors pointed out that “it is imperative to defend the Amazon from the current government's policy of devastation” and vowed to fight “crimes promoted by militias, land grabbers, loggers and any economic organization that acts against the law.” Brazil must “overcome the predatory model of exploration and production, currently aggravated by the total omission of the current government,” they insisted.

The document also highlighted the importance of unrestricted, free speech and journalism, particularly following the murders of indigenous activist Bruno Pereira and English journalist Dom Phillips in Amazonia while gathering data for a book.