LULA PROGRAM. Elected President of the Federal Republic of Brazil this Sunday, October 30, Lula must now govern a country plagued by economic, social and environmental crises. How does he intend to “restore” Brazil?
This is the third time that Lula has been elected president of the Federal Republic of Brazil. But by winning the election this Sunday, October 30, 2022, it is at the head of a country very different from the one he led more than ten years ago that the politician settles. During Bolsonaro’s mandate, the socio-economic crisis worsened and the environmental crisis took on an unparalleled scale with the massive devastation of part of the Amazon. The country is also suffering from a new fracture: the democratic crisis which is pushing citizens to no longer believe in institutions and is on the verge of tipping Brazil over.
Lula held his predecessor responsible for the dramatic situation in the country and promised to straighten out Brazil and restore the image of the giant of South America. The task promises to be long and difficult but Lula must keep his promise. The new head of state intends to rely on his program, many points of which remained unclear during the campaign when others seemed to take up the policies defended by Lula in 2002 and 2006 during his first terms. But more than a decade later and in a very different context where Lula must answer to the center-right parties with which he has allied himself and with a parliament mainly on the right, will the presidential program of the head of state be enough?
What is Lula’s program?
Lula’s program seems very similar to that defended for his two previous mandates, particularly on the economic level where the watchword remains social redistribution. The candidate of the Workers’ Party has however adapted his presidential projects to current issues, starting with the environmental crisis affecting the Amazon or even the international politics from which Brazil has been sidelined. Here’s what to remember from Lula’s program:
- In economics, Lula bets on social redistribution programs to lift the country out of crisis and Brazilians out of poverty, in particular the establishment of a new aid inherited from the “Bolsa Familia” to deliver to all households a fixed amount of agent for each child under six years present in the home. He also defends another aid to allow 70% of indebted Brazilian households to stagger their repayments. Finally, Lula also promises a minimum wage increase to bring it “beyond inflation” without specifying an amount and a “strengthening of social protection” in particular by returning to the 2017 reform of the Labor Code.
- Environmental protection is also a central point of Lula’s programme, which is committed to setting up a zero tolerance policy on deforestation, fires and illegal gold panning in the Amazon. It also intends to work and restore their powers to public institutions dedicated to the preservation of the environment.
- On the social level, the candidate from the left defends the insertion and integration of all minorities, including the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. He therefore promises to defend “the rights and territories of indigenous peoples” through the creation of a “Ministry of Indigenous Peoples”. Other ethnic communities and LGBTQI+ people should also benefit from social and security measures so that they no longer fall prey to discrimination.
- Lula also wants make brazil safer and promises a “new drug policy” to combat gang wars and organized crime. With this in mind, long and in-depth investigations will be preferred.
- As for international politics, the former Head of State wishes restore the image of Brazil and restore its power by strengthening cooperation with the countries of Latin America and Africa and by restoring “ties with all the European countries […]China and the United States”.