The PT, PDT, PSOL, and PCdoB signed a manifesto against cutting spending in social areas and criticizing the pressure for the presentation of a fiscal adjustment by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The text was led by social movements linked to the PT, the party of the head of Planalto, and was launched on Sunday, the 10th – the week in which the government intends to present the Budget’s expense containment package.
The national president of the PT, deputy Hoffmann Blues (PR)signed the manifesto on behalf of the party. Gleisi is critical of measures defended and discussed by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and has publicly spoken out against the unlinking of benefits from the increase in the minimum wage and changes in the health and education floors – expenses that put pressure on the fiscal framework.
The manifesto was titled “Financial market and media cannot dictate the rules for the country”. Behind the scenes, government allies note that the content is in line with recent statements by President Lula, who has criticized the financial market when it comes to spending cuts and demanded measures that affect the “upstairs”, including the review of subsidies and taxation of rich people.
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“At a time when the federal government, elected to rebuild the country, has been obtaining significant results in recovering the level of employment, wages and income of the population, such advances are presented as a pretext to further force an increase in the basic rate of interest, when the country and its productive forces demand exactly the opposite: more credit and more investment to make the economy spin”, says the letter.
The manifesto criticizes pressures that go against the real adjustment (above inflation) of the minimum wage, the linking of the value to pensions and the Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC), unemployment insurance, worker rights over the FGTS and the minimum wage constitutional provisions of health and education.
“Enough of hypocrisy and blackmail! Cutting resources from those who need the State and public investments will only take the country back to a past of exclusion and injustice that social movements and the people have been fighting for a long time, every day, to transform into a better and fairer society”, says the text.
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Last week, Lula said he saw hypocrisy in the market regarding spending cuts. He also demanded that Congress and businesspeople participate in reducing expenses, making references to tax exemptions and parliamentary amendments. “I sometimes think that the market acts with a certain hypocrisy, with a very large contribution from the Brazilian press, to try to create confusion in the minds of society. It turns out that we can no longer, every time we need to cut something, (do it) on the shoulders of the people most in need”, said the president.
As Estadão showed, the PT and other Lula allies hope that social areas do not suffer cuts that could hurt the party’s image after municipal elections in which the left has already been weakened. The government is considering subjecting the Budget’s main expenses to the limit of the fiscal framework, with a ceiling of up to 2.5% growth above inflation, but Lula has not yet put the final hammer down and has not yet authorized the announcement of the package.
This Monday, the 11th, after noise and fights from ministers from affected areas, Gleisi stated that the party will support whatever is announced by Lula. “When President Lula sets the course, we trust him a lot. The PT will not miss it, we will be together”, said the party president in an interview with Forum Magazine.
