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BrazilThe social programs wanted by Lula on the right track
The Brazilian Congress validated on Wednesday an amendment to the Constitution which allows the future Lula government to exceed the spending ceiling to finance social programs. For one year only.
President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the right with the President of the Chamber of Deputies Arthur Lira.
AFP
Brazil’s Congress on Wednesday approved an amendment to the Constitution that allows the future Lula government to exceed spending limits to fund social programs, but for only one year. The text was approved on Wednesday evening by the Senate, with 66 votes in favor and 11 once morest. It will still have to be approved article by article before being promulgated.
The Upper House had already approved the constitutional amendment two weeks ago, but had to reconsider it following certain articles were modified by the deputies, who notably reduced the duration of exceptional expenses from two to one year. The Chamber of Deputies approved the text by a very large majority, with 331 votes for and 163 once morest. This amendment allows the government of President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who takes office on January 1, to allocate 145 billion reais (regarding 26 billion euros) above the legal spending ceiling to social programs.
Lula had an ace up his sleeve during the negotiations with the deputies: a ruling by a Supreme Court judge who decided on Sunday that social minima might be financed by “extraordinary credits” without taking into account the spending cap. It might therefore have financed them even if the constitutional amendment had been rejected by the parliamentarians. The authorization of these exceptional expenses aims above all to perpetuate the monthly allowance of 600 reais (110 euros) paid to the poorest families, an amount already in force since August, under the government of the outgoing president of extreme right Jair Bolsonaro.
An “emergency for the country”
Lula also undertook to pay the beneficiary families a monthly bonus of 150 reais for each child under seven. “This constitutional amendment is an emergency for the country, following the damage caused by (budgetary) austerity under Bolsonaro,” left-wing MP Fernanda Melchionna told the Chamber.
Adriana Ventura, of the right-wing Novo party, for her part castigated a text which “misleads Brazilians”, and estimated that “the poor will pay the bill with inflation” which she believes risks causing increase in public spending. Beyond the social minima, the authorization to exceed the expenditure ceiling will make it possible to release funds for the program of popular pharmacies, with significant reductions for the purchase of drugs, and for the increase in the minimum wage.
More than 33 million Brazilians suffer from hunger, and the purchasing power of the poorest has been seriously affected by the Covid-19 crisis and by inflation. The left-wing president-elect’s team is trying to reassure the business community, which fears that the future government will neglect budgetary rigor to finance its social programs.
(AFP)
