The minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, (PSOL), launched this Saturday (8) the Government on the Street initiative, with the aim of expanding dialogue between President Lula (PT) and the country’s peripheries one year before the 2026 elections.
The inaugural event was held in the Campo Limpo region, where Boulos lives, in the south of São Paulo. The stage for the event was set up on a football field, surrounded by masonry buildings, most of them unplastered, from where residents followed the speeches.
The minister’s speech was preceded by representatives of social movements such as collectors, app workers, youth, battle of rhymes and experimental kitchen of the MTST (Homeless Workers Movement), of which Boulos is part.
“Lula asked me to be a minister who covers the outskirts of Brazil. Do what we did here, which is listen to workers and movements, but not just listen: bring a solution,” he said when taking the microphone.
Boulos announced a platform he called participatory budgeting, in which the population will be able to send requests to the federal government to define priorities. The expectation is to launch the page later this year.
He highlighted that his mission will be to strengthen the federal government’s relationship with the people of the outskirts. To do this, it will have to deal with the challenge of the advancement of other political spectrums within this electorate. As shown by Sheetsince 2012, .
“The left has not lost connection with society, so much so that it won the last election with President Lula with popular votes. He won with a wide margin among those who earn up to two minimum wages, which are the people on the outskirts,” said Boulos, who defended popular participation as a vision supported by the 1988 Constitution, but rejected by right-wing governors. “They have peoplephobia, fear of the people,” he stated.
The minister’s next agendas in the 26 states and the Federal District will be defined after participating in , in Pará, where he travels this Sunday (9).
Boulos was sworn in on October 29th, taking over from Márcio Macêdo. On the occasion, Boulos criticized the operation carried out by the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, the coolest in the country, with 121 deaths. This Saturday, he again criticized the action.
“The governor of Rio prefers to do demagoguery with blood, treating everyone in the community as if they were criminals. In fact, this is the same view as governor Tarcísio de Freitas and many Bolsonarian governors”, he said, citing the Federal Police operation against the PCC (First Command of the Capital) as an example of fighting crime in the correct way.
