After a month in power, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has already made progress in fulfilling campaign promises and in important actions in several areas. Already on his first day as president, on January 1st, Lula signed 52 decrees and four provisional measures (MPs) and revoked acts of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
On the occasion, he edited the MP that guaranteed the payment of R$ 600 to beneficiaries of the Auxílio Brasil, which will once again be called Bolsa Familia. Rescuing 33 million Brazilians from hunger and 100 million from poverty is the main commitment assumed by Lula and a challenge for social development policies.
The president also withdrew eight state-owned companies from the privatization process, including Brazil Communications Company (EBC) and the Post Office.
Another campaign pledge is to reinstate a more stringent gun control policy than his predecessor’s. For this, Lula signed a decree that reduces the amount of weapons and ammunition allowed to be used, making carrying authorization conditional upon proof of need. The measure also suspends registration for the acquisition and transfer of weapons and ammunition for restricted use by hunters, shooters and collectors (CACs) and the granting of authorizations to open new clubs and shooting schools.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security already has a working group to deal with new regulations for Law 10,826, which establishes the rules for registration, possession and sale of firearms and ammunition. The decree also determines that the Federal Police (PF) must re-register, within 60 days, all weapons sold as of May 2019.
Still on the subject of security, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security presented President Lula with proposals to toughen legislation on crimes against the democratic rule of law. The initiative is a reaction to terrorist acts that took place on January 8in Brasilia, and was nicknamed Democracy Package. Among the measures is the creation of a National Guard and the criminalization of conduct on the internet that configure the practice of this type of crime, with the accountability of internet platforms that do not take down terrorist and anti-democratic publications.
In that first month, Lula also sanctioned laws such as the one makes the CPF the only identification record and the National Digital Education Policy. A symbolic sanction was the law that equates the crime of racial injury to that of racism, with enlarging feathers. The measure was approved in December in Congress and, according to experts, corrects a distortion, since, in practice, injury was considered a less serious crime, despite the intention of the actions being the same.
Racial injury is the offense to someone, an individual, because of race, color, ethnicity or origin. And racism is when discrimination affects an entire community by putting a racialized person at a disadvantage, for example, by preventing a black person from assuming a role, job or entering an establishment because of their skin color.
Environment and help for the Yanomami
The environment was also the target of the first measures with the establishment of the Amazon Fund to combat environmental crimes. Financed by the governments of Norway and Germany, the fund has blocked around R$ 3.3 billion. The financing mechanism had been deactivated in the last government and, now, it must return to investments from foreign countries.
The government is also restructuring policies to combat deforestation, such as the creation of the Permanent Interministerial Commission for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and the reestablishment of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm). Created in 2004, the PPCDAm was responsible for the drop in deforestation in subsequent years until it rose again, starting in 2018. The plan has as its thematic axes land and territorial ordering, environmental monitoring and control and the promotion of sustainable productive activities .
On an emergency basis, the Amazon Fund will be used in emergency actions to combat humanitarian crisis experienced by Yanomami indigenous people in Roraima and which has already led to the death of 570 children from malnutrition and preventable causes in the last four years. The Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI) is the largest in the country in terms of territory and suffers from the invasion of miners. Contamination of water by mercury used in mining and illegal deforestation impact on the safety and availability of food in communities.
Although indigenous entities and bodies such as the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) have already denounced the lack of assistance to these communities for a long time, now President Lula ordered urgent help to the Yanomami. In the same vein, the government is determined to expel miners from the region. For this, among other actions, the Air Force Command will control the airspace of the Yanomami territoryand agents from the Federal Police and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) will act as administrative police in interdicting aircraft and equipment to support illicit activities.
Health and salary appreciation
In health, President Lula sanctioned the bill that recognized community health agents and agents fighting endemic diseases as health professionals. With the change, these workers are now able to accumulate public office, something only allowed for health and education professionals, in addition to being assured better working conditions, such as receiving additional unhealthy conditions and other benefits.
President Lula during a ceremony to sanction the law that considers agents fighting endemic diseases to be health professionals – Valter Campanato/Archive/Agência Brasil
Also, the commission formed by federal, state and municipal governments approved the National Program to Reduce Queues for Elective Surgery, Complementary Exams and Specialized Consultations, in the Unified Health System (SUS). R$ 600 million will be invested, resources guaranteed in the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the Transition, with an advance of R$ 200 million already in February for surgeries. Complementing the resources will be done according to the presentation of a plan and the performance of the states in carrying out the procedures.
During this first month of government, President Lula also initiated discussions for the re-establishment of a Minimum Wage Enhancement Policy, which will bring a permanent calculation formula for the national minimum wage. For him, to ensure social justice, the minimum wage needs to go up according to the growth of the economyequivalent to the increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP, sum of goods and services produced in the country).
Currently, the minimum wage is R$ 1,302, according to a provisional measure published in mid-December by the previous government. This value considers only the variation of the National Consumer Price Index (INPC) plus a real gain of approximately 1.4%. According to the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese), in December 2022, the minimum wage needed to meet the basic needs (food, housing, clothing, education, hygiene, transportation, leisure and social security) of a family of four should be R$ 6,647.63.
resumption of dialogue
Brazil has also resumed international dialogue, which was strained with many countries during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro. President Lula’s first trip abroad was to Argentina, where he met with the country’s president, Alberto Fernándesto restore relations between the two countries, and participated in the summit of leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)in addition to others bilateral engagements and meetings with leaders.
President Lula meets with the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, in Buenos Aires – Ricardo Stuckert/Archive/PR
Afterwards, he was in Uruguay to treat the strengthening of Mercosur, one of the international challenges of the new government. In a meeting with the country’s president, Luis Lacalle Pou, it was agreed to create a technical team to discuss the adoption of a free trade agreement between China and the economic bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as countries associates. Uruguay is currently negotiating an independent trade agreement with the Asian country.
In addition to the 18 heads of state, they came to Brasilia for President Lula’s inauguration ceremonythe Prime Minister of Germany, Olaf Scholz, was in the federal capital this week and celebrated the resumption of multilateral dialogue from Brazil. Lula has also received direct telephone calls from the presidents of the United States, Joe Bidenand from France, Emmanuel Macron.
President Lula meets with governors – José Cruz/Archive/Agência Brasil
Likewise, the president opened the doors of the Planalto Palace to state and municipal managers. In that first month, he carried out the first enlargement with the country’s 27 governors, when they decided to create a federative dialogue council, called the Federation Council, and a common works investment plan. Among other actions, the government wants to launch a national movement for vaccination, and Lula asked for the support of governors in carrying out public campaigns and popular mobilization so that Brazil can once again achieve good immunization rates.
