Lula accelerates on the road to development – Florestan Fernandes Jr

Nothing was easy in Lula’s third term, especially in the economic area. Putting his progressive proposal to increase employment and income on his feet seems like a far-fetched scenario.

In addition to facing a coup attempt, facing a hostile parliament, and appetite, with a lot of programs and right-wing psychology, the president has ideas for an interest rate policy that consumes billions of reais there. It is inspired by Guedesboy, Bob Neto, president of the Central Bank.

But since Lula is not a meek or regretful person, he rolled up his sleeves and immersed himself in humanitarian efforts, distancing himself from political, administrative, economic and international meetings. In just five months, the president was in 10 countries. He traveled, as the best “traveling salesman” from Brazil, equivalent to 10 circuits around the world. In each country, Lula tried to strengthen commercial and technological relations of common interest. And it worked. In the environmental agenda alone, the president received a contribution of 3.2 billion dollars from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany for the Amazon Fund. With the promise of another 3.2 billion dollars from the European Union.

In the first agreement of his third term, Lula closed with China, Brazil’s main trading partner, as well as an electric car factory in Camaçari, Bahia, 20 commercial agreements, one of them making possible future public cooperation with private, which allowed, among other things, the construction of railways in the country. Internally, Lula and his finance minister, Fernando Haddad, were able to approve a proposal for a new monetary system for Union accounts, which will replace the current spending limit. It was also able to end the price imbalance of oil products with the international market. As a result, Petrobras was able to reduce cooking gas by 21.3%, diesel by 12.8% and gasoline by 12.6%.

Last Thursday (25/05), Lula, together with his vice president and the Minister of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, announced in Fiesp the reduction of IPI and PIS/Cofins on cars up to $120 thousand. Discounts will range from 1.5% to 10.79%. This move, according to the Industry, should increase sales by up to 300,000 vehicles this year alone. On the same day, the president of the BNDES, Aloisio Mercadante, announced the billionaire’s way of financing the industry, under the same loan conditions that have already been granted to agribusiness. It is good to remember that the automotive industry, since Juscelino Kubitschek, has always played a fundamental role in the Brazilian economy. It currently has 6,000 auto parts companies and nearly 420,000 direct jobs generated in the production chain.

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In 2012, still under PT governments, the industry reached a peak of 3.8 million light vehicles sold in the country. At that time, Brazil attracted car manufacturers such as Nissan and the Chinese JAC Motors and Chery, as well as luxury car manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz.

But only 7 years of Temer/Bolsonaro was enough for production to drop to 2 million cars per year. The so-called “bridge of the future” that took us into the socio-economic abyss. By approaching the business and production sectors, Lula is extending the necessary support to level the playing field in the political arena. If the economy is good, which candidate will want to stay away from Lula’s platform?

This article does not represent the views of Brasil 247 and is the responsibility of the columnist.