Social benefit programs in Brazil

By Roberto Morejón

As if four years of government were too short for him, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, is promoting the first social benefit programs, as promised in his electoral campaign, in association with pleasant memories of the low-income population.

Lula's government resumed the project called "My house, my life" aimed at building 2 million houses for poor families in a country where there is a deficit of 6 million.

An idea launched by Lula in 2009 and later dismantled by the ultra-right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro, this project is associated with another deeply rooted project, the Bolsa Familia.

Still in the process of legislative approval, the latter stands as the most allegorical procedure against poverty in Brazil, and as it was associated with the Workers' Party, Bolsonaro changed its name and diluted it.

Lula recovers it with the original appellation linked to requirements, since the monthly payment to some 22 million needy families will require taking children to school, vaccinating them and subjecting pregnant women to prenatal checkups.

Bolsa Família is memorable for acting as one of the key levers to mitigate extreme constraints on the population.

This is one of the purposes of President Lula when he resumes it now, without neglecting other aspects to meet the urgent needs of many Brazilians.

The new government in the South American giant also intends to expand industrialization without forgetting Petrobras, which was harassed and partly privatized during the bolsonarista administration.

Under the neoliberal optics resumed after the palace coup against the former head of state Dilma Rousseff, many companies in Brazil have closed down in the face of the push of the free market at all costs.

The former union leader now in the Planalto Palace is confident that he will work for his country to return to growth and improve the lives of his compatriots, even in the midst of material hardship, as the economy contracted in the last quarter of 2022, for the first time in more than a year.

The progressive ruler is confident in his social allocations, as he did from 2002 and 2006, the beginning years of his previous periods in power.

With the most recent electoral triumph, Lula puts an end to the lack of State protection, the pampered alliance with the United States and the mockery of democratic canons.

 Of course, it will not be easy because of the encouragement given by Bolsonaro to the extreme right.