The senator praised , the government’s brand (PT), and promised to promote changes in the program’s format to guarantee payments to people who were in the program and now have income.
In a debate promoted by Veja magazine, this Monday (15), in São Paulo, he also confirmed that Daniella Marques, former president of Caixa in the government of , will be part of his campaign team, outlining strategies for the area of social responsibility.
During the event, Flávio stated that there is prejudice against Bolsa Família beneficiaries and said that receiving the benefit brings the idea of security even for those who, after receiving the aid, obtain other sources of income.
“We have to understand that we have an affective memory, even. Bolsa Família is stability for those who have already gone hungry. People think the following: ‘look, if I get a formal job and I lose Bolsa Família, and if I lose my job, how will I be? I’ll go back to that time when I was really hungry'”, he said.
“So we have to understand this logic that goes through the minds of people who need this, reaffirm once again to them that this will be maintained and we will enhance this guarantee to encourage people to have formal employment”, he stated.
The senator treated the program as an “acquired right” of Brazilians and stated that “any country in the world has a program for low-income people who have difficulty eating.”
Flávio also said he was in favor of the PT project to exempt those earning up to R$5,000, a proposal that was also made, in 2018, by the campaign of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. However, he criticized the way the Lula government is implementing the proposal.
“The only difference is that, with Bolsonaro, you would certainly have compensation for giving up this income when you raise the tax exemption level,” he said. “In other words, with Bolsonaro you would have something to take from without having to increase or create taxes. The current government does the opposite: it fleeces the Brazilian public, the Brazilian taxpayer, with a very high tax burden in order to fulfill this promise.”
Daniella Marques had already been accompanying Flávio to events at which he had been invited to speak. Last week, she was with him at a lunch organized by Grupo Voto.
The former president of Caixa has been introduced by the senator, highlighting a microcredit program aimed at women promoted by the bank during the Bolsonaro administration. The senator, however, avoided mentioning which position she has on his team — there are expectations, among financial market agents, that he will soon present the name of the head of his economic team, as Bolsonaro did with Paulo Guedes, in 2018.
“[Daniella] It is a person who is willing to be close to us. Not because she’s a woman. It’s because, for me, she is the best person on Paulo Guedes’ team. So, I’m sure that a lot of things that Paulo Guedes managed to implement Dani helped to build and make viable”, he stated.
“He is a person that I respect a lot, in whom I trust a lot, he is willing to be close to us in the campaign and will help me not only in this economic part, but mainly in the social mobility issue”, said Flávio.
Even before he was connected to the Banco Master scandal, after the revelation of audios in which he asked banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the bank, for money to finance a film about his father, Flávio was already trying to build, in closed events, the image of a “moderate Bolsonaro”, different from the former president.
At this Monday’s event, Flávio said that one of the problems he identified in his father’s government was the relationship with the press, which he promised to improve.
“[O relacionamento com a imprensa] It was one of the problems that I identify in President Bolsonaro’s government. The relationship with the press, the prejudice often felt by those who were managing the advertising budget in relation to some media outlets”, said Flávio.
“This, obviously, has to be radically changed. It’s a lesson in something that I think was done wrong and that we don’t need to repeat. We can do much better and that will be the case in a possible government of mine”, he added.
The senator was asked about Master only once, at the beginning of his interview, and responded by saying that his only relationship with Vorcaro was about the film.
“My relationship with him was solely and exclusively because of the film. I see things on the bright side, because there is nothing else to say about me other than that, which is something that has absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s a private relationship, an investment And the person [Vorcaro] would have a return. And, God willing, very soon everyone will see the film there. It was really cool,” he said.
The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) participated in an interview before Flávio entered the stage and was asked about participating in the senator’s presidential campaign — before the Master case reached Flávio, Tarcísio said he would coordinate his campaign in the state. However, when speaking after the question, the governor did not mention the senator.
Flávio was asked about the distance between the governor and other figures on the Brazilian right, such as federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. “Everyone will come at the moment they understand best. The reality is that we are already talking about the campaign, we are talking about the election, but the mass of the Brazilian people are not aware of this yet.”
