During his inauguration speech today (1st) at the National Congress, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that the rights and interests of the population, the strengthening of democracy and the resumption of national sovereignty will be the pillars of his new government. “No nation has nor can it rise on the misery of its people,” he said.
“This commitment begins with the guarantee of a renewed, stronger and fairer Bolsa Família Program, to serve those who need it most. Our first actions are aimed at rescuing 33 million people from hunger and rescuing more than 100 million Brazilian men and women from poverty, who have borne the hardest burden of the project of national destruction that ends today,” added the president.
Lula recalled his first inauguration, on January 1, 2003, when he committed himself to the food sovereignty of the population. “Having to repeat this commitment today, in the face of the increase in poverty and the return of hunger that we had overcome, is the most serious symptom of the devastation that has imposed on the country in recent years”, he said.
The president’s message was one of hope and rebuilding. “In 2002, we said that hope had overcome fear, in the sense of overcoming fears in the face of the unprecedented election of a representative of the working class. In eight years of government, we made it clear that the fears were unfounded. Otherwise, we would not be here again,” he highlighted.
According to Lula, the diagnosis made by the government transition team will be widely publicized, “so that people know how we found the country and each one makes his own assessment”.
“Health resources have been emptied. They dismantled Education, Culture, Science and Technology. They destroyed the protection of the Environment. They left no resources for school lunches, vaccination, public security, forest protection and social assistance, disorganized the governance of the economy, public financing, support for companies, entrepreneurs and foreign trade, squandered state-owned companies and banks public, delivered the national heritage”, he mentioned. “It is on these terrible ruins that I assume the commitment, together with the Brazilian people, to rebuild the country and make a Brazil of all and for all again”.
