By ANDRÉ MÁRCIO NEVES SOARES*

Lula behaves as if he doesn't know that this government will be his last or at most the penultimate

I will begin by expressing my personal opinion about Lula's third term in office: I am a little disappointed. I confess that I had higher hopes that, at his advanced age, Lula would give up his long-awaited attempt to be a world "statesman" in favor of a government that was more assertive in terms of local governance. In fact, while Lula was the beacon guiding us beyond Bolsonaro's neo-fascism, on the other hand he allowed himself to be entangled in the nefarious webs of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, with the "parliamentary amendments" and other petty matters.

It is true that, in these almost two years of his term, Lula managed to partially recover our country, which had been destroyed by the previous government, in terms of public policies, and put it back on the level of the ten main economies in the world.

In this sense, indicators such as the current unemployment rate of 6,9%; the GDP growth of 1,4% in the second quarter; the resumption of the Minha Casa Minha Vida program, with 21,5 thousand housing units delivered in 2023 and a forecast of delivering another 26 thousand in 2024; and the revaluation of the minimum wage, although not at the level promised so far, prove that the Lula government really cares about promoting improvements in the lives of the citizens of this country, especially the less fortunate.

However, Lula behaves as if he does not know that this government will be his last or at most the penultimate one, assuming he is reelected and gathers the strength to remain until the end. But, in fact, even due to his age, Lula has, optimistically, six more years left in his term. Unfortunately!

It would be good, therefore, for him to leave political collusion aside for a while — as in the recent negotiations to elevate Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco to his ministry when their terms as presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively, end at the end of the year — and adopt a firmer stance regarding the missteps that have marked the nation under the influence of Bolsonarism and still hinder its growth/development. It is important to remember that Arthur Lira has always been a loyal ally of Jair Bolsonaro.

In these circumstances, taking a break from worrying about international issues, such as wars around the world, an area in which Brazil has very little influence, or the global taxation of large fortunes, could be a good way to allow attention to be directed to the main domestic concerns. Well, the country is on fire! Literally!

Gold miners continue to ravage indigenous populations and poison their territories with mercury. Central Bank President Campos Neto continues to defy economic reason by keeping interest rates sky-high (he has just managed to raise the Selic rate by 0,25%, with the country's economy in deflation in the last quarter). We do not have a consistent policy for expanding our arms industry. History shows that no sovereign country has remained so for long, namely without internal military power.

Likewise, we do not have a powerful national pharmaceutical industry that is commensurate with the size of Brazil. If we continue along this line of reasoning, we will see that we do not have a solid foundation that would allow us to evolve into a developed nation with a quality of life for (almost) everyone.

You see, dear reader, the narrative that we are still a young country, with its lands discovered just over 500 years ago, should no longer guide our political itinerary. Finance Minister Fernando Haddad seems more aligned with the demands of the capitalists/rentiers of “Faria Lima” than with the real economic needs of the Brazilian population. Despite the respect he certainly deserves, we cannot continue to play around with the issue of fiscal austerity in a country that lacks greater and better public investments.

Now that the national scenario has improved, with unemployment falling and economic growth exceeding the expectations of financial “experts”, Fernando Haddad should try to reverse absurd paradigms such as the goal of eliminating the primary deficit, under penalty of seeing yet another hiccup in our economy not translate into sustained growth.

Furthermore, it would be good for the country's health if Lula left the infamous 2016 coup d'état — and the catastrophic anti-national governments of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro — to the competent authorities and focused on undoing the policies against economic and social development that they perpetrated. In other words, it is high time for Lula to transform the country from a mere agro-exporter and extractor of natural resources in the XNUMXst century to a true “player"of new technologies, especially information technologies, if not worldwide, at least in the southern region of the planet. This could be your legacy!

Time is running out! Lula probably knows that he will not have enough time left in his political life to see Brazil evolve, especially in the field of ecological technologies, even if he manages to set the course of our politics. But this is no excuse for him to get involved in national political misdeeds, marked by a history of patronage and personal interests, true patrimonialist collusions of the national oligarchies, under penalty of failing once again in directing the country towards the great leap in domestic quality of life that the majority of the Brazilian population has been waiting for, at least since we became a Republic.

Now, where is the discourse on agrarian reform that once animated the “soul of Sion” of the PT’s discourse in the 1980s? Where is the narrative of educational reform that was part of the PT’s discourse when Lula was first elected?

It is no surprise that several news portals recently reported that seven out of ten Brazilians cannot solve simple math problems. In fact, the teaching profession continues to be increasingly disqualified, with low salaries and precarious working conditions, which will obviously have a negative impact on education in the country in the long term.

It is true that much of the educational policy is the responsibility of the states and municipalities. However, it is the federal government that provides the direction, that plans the educational future of our children and young people, through the MEC. It is up to the federal government to outline public policies of incentive (perhaps the correct term is help) so that the states and municipalities can train their primary and secondary school teachers. Without well-educated children, there is no developed country. Much less citizens who are aware of their political status.

For all of this, those who follow national politics, especially the Lula government, are left with a sense of frustration. I don't mean to say that the country would be better off without him. Quite the contrary! I demand more from Lula because I am convinced that he can do more. It is definitely not by trying to increase the number of members of the UN Security Council that Lula will make history in this country.

In fact, China and the United States have just thwarted this intention of his. Lula is already part of the select pantheon of notable presidents we have had. Regardless of what happens, he already has his “ticket" to Olympus. But we still need the flesh and blood Lula, the “tough” former metalworker, the radical “bearded toad” who dreamed of transforming this country into a power. This cannot be done with agreements with Faria Lima. Nor can it be done with coup-plotting congressmen, nor by drilling in the Amazon region for oil.

Citizenship, dear reader, is the most important concept of a nation. Without citizens, there is no representative State. But while being a citizen implies several duties, which are not the subject of this brief text, on the other hand it ensures numerous rights. In Brazil, the elites that have governed us since the Empire have reversed the logic that transforms the people, or rather, the subjects, into citizens. In fact, history shows us that only through the struggle to conquer civil and social rights have the most civilized Western societies managed to achieve their political rights with greater maturity.

Here, in the words of CARVALHO (2016): “Until 1930, there was no politically organized people nor consolidated national sentiment. Participation in national politics, including in major events, was limited to small groups… The people had no place in the political system, whether in the Empire or in the Republic. Brazil was still an abstract reality for them.”

It would be great if someone from Lula's inner circle could get him to do a ““My fault”, even intimate, that would allow him to recalibrate the direction of his current government. Since profound changes in social and economic paradigms are only achieved in the long term, I fear that Lula would not see the fruits of his new path, as he would have seen if he had done his homework in his first two terms. But that is no excuse for not doing it now.

We are in the third decade of the 21st century and, even today, a large portion of Brazilians cannot be called citizens in fact or by law. As a result, Brazil continues to be a second-class country, exploited and subjugated by the world's major powers. While it is true that things would have been much worse without the PT governments in recent decades, such as the period of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro, it is also a fact that we missed a golden opportunity, in this historical period, to resolve the issue of our citizenship once and for all.

Lula remains in debt to Brazilian society. He deserves neither applause nor boos. But there is still time, and if God is truly Brazilian, Lula will be reelected in 2026, and will complete his second term in this decade (in total, he will serve four terms). Thus, with six more years ahead, it will still be possible to direct his government towards solving the main issues that hinder the development of our country. And then, we will hope that, in the future, new leaders will continue his legacy.

* André Márcio Neves Soares He holds a PhD in Social Policies and Citizenship from the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL).

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