Lula ends 100 turbulent days of barracks control

Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvacelebrates 100 days in power on Monday, at the start of the most turbulent government in the country’s recent history, due to an attempted coup by far-right militants.

The violent eruption of the Bolsonaro crowd on January 8 not only caused considerable damage to the headquarters of the three powers of the Republic, but also forced new Governmenta week after taking power, to change their priorities and focus their efforts on eliminating possible new threats to democracy.

Lula had to spend several weeks devoting his full attention to the leadership of the armed forces and other security forces in order to insist on “depoliticize” dashboards.

He replaced some commanders who were too close to his predecessor Jair Bolsonaroincluding the now former commander of the army, General Júlio César Arruda.

Since then, the new president has multiplied his meetings with the military leadership and lavished himself on military actions, with the aim of restoring the institutional normality that was destroyed during the four years of ultra-right hegemony.

budding debolsonarization of institutionsa process that can still be extended, went hand in hand with Lula’s “obsession” – in his own words – to continue the social policies that in the past had the effect of reducing poverty and were buried by Jair Bolsonaro.

Among other things, he renewed Bolsa Família, the main subsidy program for the poor, or popular housing program My house, My life.

He also imbued his management with the gesture of yes social groups that are most abused by the extreme right, such as women, sexual and racial minorities, especially towards the indigenous people, to whom he dedicated his service for the first time.

Between gestures appointed 11 women to head a total of 38 ministriesthe largest proportion of female ministers in the history of Brazil.

Another of Lula’s major U-turns occurred in foreign policy, where he had a busy schedule, unlike isolation from its predecessor.

In these 100 days, he traveled to Argentina, to the CELAC summit; to Uruguay and the USA, and due to illness, he had to postpone his trip to China and the United Arab Emirates, which he will go to next week.

It also reactivated relations with Venezuela, which had been suspended by Bolsonaro, and rejoined Union of South American Nations (Unasur)from which Brazil separated in 2019.

Much of Lula’s foreign policy has focused on strengthening international agreements aimed at protecting the Amazon rainforest, particularly after the reactivation of the Amazon Fund, which finances Norwegian and German and which other countries could join.

Lula announced that from now on his attention will be fully focused on the economy, a sector that is currently giving him more headaches than progress.

Government friction with Central bankdue to the high level of interest rates (13.75%), which managed to curb inflation, but as a side effect slowed down growth and the labor market.

But the issuing entity, which has full autonomy, has currently not bowed to constant pressure coming from Lula himself and his finance minister, Fernando Haddad, and has refused to ease rates for fear of possible lack of price control.

The government has managed to present a project to establish new fiscal rules, which foresee a more flexible spending ceiling, but its approval will depend on the National Congress.

Those fiscal rules, which will be necessary in order to be able to increase spending on social programs, They will also be linked to the future far-reaching tax reform that the Government is preparing, which will also have to go through a still legislatively uncertain process.