Minister Renan Filho (MDB-AL), of Transport, says that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stopped being from the left and became “the greatest center leader in the country”, and that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), “never was” liberal. For the ally, who constantly criticizes the former president, Bolsonaro was also not efficient and “did not attract private capital” when he held the presidency of the Republic.
The perception regarding Lula, in fact, would have already been assimilated even by the PT presidency itself, according to him.
“The fact is that President Lula is the greatest center leader in the country. Long before the center won the municipal elections, PP, Union, PSD, Republicans were already in government. Now, it’s important to put it out there for people to compare, because it’s very easy to say that Bolsonaro is liberal. It never was”, said the minister in an interview with Folha de S. Paulo published this weekend.
A [nova] criticism of Bolsonaro refers to Renan Filho’s desire to hold 35 highway auctions by the end of the year, which he says is more efficient than governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos-SP) when he held the position of Minister of Infrastructure under the former president.
“[Bolsonaro] it was not efficient, it did not make concessions, it did not attract private capital. With Lula, we will have the dominance of private capital in highways and railways, a historic reversal”, he pointed out, stating that he intends to unlock investments of R$ 190 billion by the end of this government.
Renan Filho attacked Bolsonaro for at least two consecutive weeks in mid-August after the former president said that the Northeast should be the best region in Brazil due to the PT’s propaganda about his administration, but that “it is the worst”.
Still according to the minister, the perception that Lula is left-wing remains only among Bolsonaro’s voters and allies, as not even PT supporters believe this anymore.
“Only in the bubble [de Bolsonaro] he is leftist. Not even Lula’s bubble thinks that. Because, for the PT, the president is not leftist”, he pointed out.
For Renan Filho, the PT itself also sees a more central positioning of Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance), who is trying to put into practice a spending cut package that even affects social benefits, the target of harsh criticism from the party and allies.
Haddad, he says, has “some problems with the extreme left, but also with the extreme right”. “If he hadn’t [problemas] with the extremes, it would be with the center. And it’s better for it to be with the extremes”, he added.
“I think the president gets it right. Basically, he is a pragmatist, he does what needs to be done in the economy”, he added, highlighting that there is already a fiscal adjustment in the country and that expenses will be reviewed.
The minister, however, recalled that the cut cannot only occur in benefits, but that “it is important to take a look at the top floor. We have R$500 billion in tax incentives.”
He suggests, for example, cutting 10% of all tax incentives granted by the government, and says that it worked in the state of Alagoas when he was governor. However, he sees difficulties in the relationship with Congress, which is resistant to giving up or reducing parliamentary amendments, which are also being targeted by Lula in the spending cut package.
For him, the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro “infantilized” the presidency of the Republic. This, too, is a constant criticism from Lula and his allies, who say that they are trying to recover the budget that would have been hijacked by Congress to guarantee previous governability.
“The amendments have grown a lot over the last few years because the previous government infantilized the presidency of the Republic. As there is no power vacuum, it was occupied and the budget migrated in a significant portion to parliament”, he said.
Renan Filho himself confirmed that the Transport department could have funding cuts of between R$800 million and R$1 billion – which could directly affect the New PAC, which has many infrastructure works planned. “I think there is still room to, in some way, recover”, he added.
