2007 is gearing up! Read about the President Lula’s inauguration, the election in the Chamber of Deputies, the Governors and Public Security and the Workers’ Party III Congress


2007 is gearing up
Election in the Chamber of Deputies
Governors and Public Security
Workers’ Party III Congress

2007 is gearing up

The year begins with an intense political agenda. On the very first of January, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the 27 governors of the Brazilian states were sworn in. Throughout the month of February attentions will be concentrated on the new federal government’s composition and on the elections that will define the presidents of both houses of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the early days of February, the Workers Party (PT) celebrates its 27th anniversary and officially launches its III Congress to be held on the 6, 7 and 8 of July.

At his Inauguration, Lula pledged in, an address to the nation at the Parlatory (Square of the Three Branches in Brasília, the country’s capital city), added efforts to ensure an economic growth higher than the one accomplished during his first term. He cited the package of measures to “unblock” the economy, and the necessary economic reforms, as the tax reform, to complement the changes. “This country will have a vigorous growth. But not the growth we had in another time when the country grew yet the people remained poor, the country grew yet the result of this growth was not distributed. We must be conscious that the country needs to grow, but what needs to grow, too, concomitantly with the growth of the economy, with the growth of industry, with the growth of agriculture, is the growth of the improved quality of life of our children, of our women, of our youths”, said Lula (For full speech log).

Before Congress, President Lula said that his reelection was a free and conscious decision of the people, without the influence of the “slave drivers”. To him, the reelection means the will to change of the population who has been repressed for years. “This people constitutes the true public opinion of the country that some intended to monopolize”. (Lula’s full speech at National Congress).

To President Lula, the verbs accelerate, grow and include will rule Brazil over the next four years. “The effects of the changes must be felt rapidly and amply. We will unblock Brazil to grow and include in a more accelerated fashion”, he assured during his speech to Congress.
Even before his Inauguration, in December 2006, Lula intended to announce a package of economic measures –the Program for the Acceleration of Growth (PAC)–to boost the country’s growth. The announcement was put off till late January.

The package’s only concrete measure that could be learned in 2006 was made public by the minister of finance Guido Mantega at a debate with senators on economic policies. He confirmed that the government will increase investments in infrastructure works using resources that would pay debt interests to the “market”.

In the government it is public the existence of forces waging a tough battle to uphold the economic agenda. On one side, the so-called developmentalists, who advocate a policy ensuring accelerated growth, fiscal rigor and inflation control, with job generation and the upholding of the social programs. In this camp are the minister of finance, Guido Mantega, and the chief-of-staff, Dilma Rousseff.

On the other, those who advocate the economic orthodoxy of former minister of finance Antonio Palocci and the president of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles. Brazil’s policy over the last four years has been one of high interest rates and primary surpluses which have resulted in mediocre growth, well below world averages.

Lula assumed his second term without having altered as yet his cabinet’s composition. The changes are expected to occur in early February. Till then, there are only speculations over whether Lula’s term will be of a new kind or whether there will be a second term in which the polemic involving those who defend a development-driven economic policy and those who practice an orthodox, pro financial capital interest-rate policy.

Election in the Chamber of Deputies

Many are the challenges to be met by the new government. In addition to the composition of his Ministry –still unannounced–, Lula has before him the clash at the election for the presidencies of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The Speaker of the Federal Chamber is the third in the line of succession. It is him/her who assumes the command of the country in the absence of the President of the Republic and the Vice. Besides, the president of the Chamber will control alone, in 2007, a budget of R$ 3.387 billion (approx. US$ 1.540 bi). It is incumbent upon the Speaker whether to dismiss a petition or install a committee to analyze a potential impeachment process against the President of the Republic; defines what will or not be voted; has the power to dismiss or accept a petition by a Parliamentary Inquest Committee (CPI); and is the swing vote at the Steering Board.
In the case of the Chamber, two government base names are running for the post: Workers’ Party Deputy Arlindo Chinaglia and Aldo Rebelo of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB). The election will be on February 1.

Should the contest reach the floor of the Chamber, there is a fear, on the part of the parties supporting the government, that there might be a rerun of the 2005 episode. On that occasion, the opposition exploited the majority’s fracture and elected Severino Cavalcanti, of the Progressive Party (PP), imposing a defeat on the government. In the first round of that election, petista Luis Eduardo Greenhalgh had 207 votes against Severino’s 124 and 117 cast to Virgílio Guimarães, also from the PT. In the second round, Severino won with 300 votes; Greenhalgh only had 195.

It is worth recalling that the contest between Virgílio Guimarães and Greenhalgh was not at the root of the defeat but a symptom of a much bigger problem: the right’s strategy to undermine the government and the Workers’ Party in the eyes of the social sectors that converged to lead Lula to victory in 2002.

The attacks on the PT aimed at strengthening the right toward winning the Presidency of the Republic in 2010, while at the same time it operated to defeat the PT in 2006. After devising this strategy, the right, with a clear game plan, began to build in society an anti-Workers’ Party rhetoric, which ultimately led to the Party’s political loss at a national level, materialized especially in the electoral results in São Paulo and Porto Alegre in 2004. This loss was followed, in 2005, by the election of Severino Cavalcanti to the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.
Severino stepped down from the presidency of the Chamber after revelations that he received kickbacks from one the Chamber’s food concessions. Aldo Rebelo was elected soon afterward and is seeking his reelection this year.

The name of Deputy Arlindo Chinaglia was nominated by the Workers’ Party representation in the Chamber –the second largest, with 83 representatives– and wooed the support of the majority party in the legislature, the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), with 90 deputies of a total 513, which formalized its adhesion to the PT candidacy.

The leader of the Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), Jutahy Jr., who coordinates the toucans (as the social-democrats are known) in the lower house, made a public statement, after a phone consultation with his party’s base, confirming his party’s support for Chinaglia’s candidacy.

As the cornerstone of the justification presented by Jutahy Jr. was the observance of the representation proportionality principle. The PMDB, whose delegation would be entitled to the presidency, relinquished the right to launch a name and decided to formally settle an agreement with the PT whereby the presidency would be the PT’s for the first two years (2007– 2008) and the PMDB would occupy the post in the 2009–2010 biennial.

The PSDB, which made the third largest representation with 66 seats, would be given the vice-presidency in Chinaglia’s slate.

With the new adhesions, the current president of the Chamber, Aldo Rebelo, saw his candidacy wither. Rebelo relies on his official base –13 parliamentarians from the PCdoB and 27 from the PSB–, with scattered support from parliamentarians of other parties. It also counts with the solidarity of figures like PSDB’s ex-president of the Republic Fernando Henrique Cardoso, as well as of leaders of the Party of the Liberal Front (PFL), like former senator Jorge Bornhausen and senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães. The PFL justifies its support for Aldo as a strategy to split the government’s coalition.

The PSDB, however, with its representation backing Chinaglia sets a crisis within the party. According to journalist Franklin Martins, the PSDB’s internal division goes far beyond the issue surrounding the composition of the Chamber’s steering board. Actually what is at stake is “the kind of opposition the toucans wish to make to president Lula or, put another way, the type of government the toucans intend to offer to the country, as an alternative to the current”.

To the journalist, “Lula’s land sliding victory in the last elections, keeping intact his political and electoral capital after one and a half years of furious attacks, posed the following dilemma to the opposition: proceed in the tactic of frontal confrontation, betting all or nothing, or working toward a distension of the political situation”.

“The PFL has already made its decision. It will stay in the extreme opposition, which makes sense for a party that came out of the elections very weakened and has no prospect of power in the short run. But the PSDB, which controls the governments of the country’s two most important states and has two names capable of running for the presidency of the Republic in 2010, José Serra and Aécio Neves, cannot afford to bet all its chips on a “the worse, the better” strategy. It must lay bridges toward important sectors of the electorate that voted in Lula, to lure them little by little. Hence the need to distension the ambient”, assures Franklin.

Still according to the journalist, the problem is that a considerable part of the PSDB is still linked to the past, or rather, still has as its main political reference the constituency that voted, while Aécio and Serra are concerned with placing a wedge between the 61% of the country’s voters who sided with Lula, and Fernando Henrique, Alckmin and Tasso, in a conservative fashion, seem only to want to keep the remaining 39% grouped.

In the Senate, the presidency may be disputed by two senators: the current president, Renan Calheiros (PMDB), of the government power base, and José Agripino Maia (PFL) of the opposition.

The composition of the partisan representations favors Calheiros since, traditionally, senators choose as their president the member of the largest party –in this case, the PMDB. The PFL representation, however, argues that the criterion should be that of the highest number of parliamentarians elected –yet not kept since, as there is no party loyalty, and as is customary, parliamentarians change parties.

The swearing in of alternate senators changed the upper house’s correlation of forces. The PMDB became the largest delegation, with 20 senators, and outnumbered the PFL, with which it was fighting for the leadership. Both parties came out of the elections with 18 senators each; yet, therefrom, the PFL lost one lawmaker and will now have a group of 17 senators.

Governors and Public Security

On the same day Lula took office, twenty-seven governors-elect also took their oaths. Twenty-one of them announced spending cuts, the suspension and review of contracts, the extinction of departments and the downsizing in the number of advisors appointed without admission examinations.

The measures announced by the governors have various drivers. In many states, these measures are mandated by a vital necessity. It’s the case, for instance, of Rio de Janeiro, whose finances are in absolute shambles. In others, they reflect the conservative agenda that was defeated in the polls, that of fiscal adjustment and outsourcing of services.

Opposition governors, as that of the state of São Paulo, José Serra, and of Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves, both belonging to the Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), further opted for a rhetoric with shades of nationalism. The two are strong names to run for the PSDB for the presidency of the Republic in 2010.

Although denying that the criticisms against the federal government are targeted at the next election, Serra makes it clear that inside the PSDB he will race for the party’s presidential nomination. No sooner had he taken office than he published eight decrees, among which those mandating a re-appraisal of all contracts previously signed by the state of São Paulo. The defeated PSDB presidential candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, commanded the state of the paulistas from 2001 through March of 2006, and structured his campaign against Lula based on his alleged quality as a good manager.

The set of decrees was classified by Serra himself as a kind of state’s accounts cleansing. The new governor suggested problems in the Alckmin administration by talking about tracking civil servants’ records and even admitted the possibility of ghost employees on the state’s payroll.

This fact reflects the infighting within the PSDB, in which Serra is already presenting himself as a candidate to the presidency of the Republic in 2010.

The governors of the country’s Southeast Region also convened to demand from the federal government public security measures. Governors José Serra (São Paulo), Aécio Neves (Minas Gerais), Sergio Cabral (Rio de Janeiro) and Paulo Hartung (Espírito Santo) – the two last ones Lula’s allies–released a joint letter requesting an increase in the number of Federal Police and Federal Highway Patrol agents in the states and greater participation of the Armed Forces in gun trafficking enforcement along national borders and the end of the withholding of funds for public security.

As of this meeting, the Southeast’s Cabinet for Integrated Action was installed, whose mission is, through a merging of the different law enforcement agencies, to facilitate the coordinated action of the four states in the area of public security.

According to Rep. Antônio Carlos Biscaia (PT-RJ), the first initiative regarding this subject came from the president in his inaugural speech, in which he defined the situation in the state of Rio de Janeiro as a terrorist act. “I believe this unity in action between governors is important because, with the federal government’s coordination and support, we can take better care of the security of the population, not as political fights as was happening in Rio,” he said.

In the case of São Paulo, the state was taken by surprise in the month of May last year with the attacks by criminal organization First Command of the Capital (PCC). The result of the PCC actions and of the police reaction was the death of 160 people, among police officers, security agents and civilians (innocent ones and alleged criminals).

The PSDB governed São Paulo for 12 years and, according to 2004 data provided by the Workers’ Party delegation at the São Paulo State Legislative Assembly, R$ 1.5 billion in funds earmarked for the health area and R$ 4 billion for education were not invested. The government of São Paulo, under the command of Geraldo Alckmin waivered the right to execute more than R$ 615 million in the area of public security over the past years.

In the case of Rio de Janeiro, synchronized attacks by criminal gangs caused the deaths of 11 people, while police reaction killed seven alleged drug dealers, totaling 18 casualties and spreading panic throughout the capital of the state, the city of Rio de Janeiro, in late December 2006. Seven passengers were burned to death on an inter-state bus that was torched, while two military police officers and two civilians died during the criminals’ attacks.

According to the coordinator of the National Human Rights Movement, Ariel de Castro Alves, organized crime exploits the current lack of articulation between the various spheres of government, of the corruption that prevails in institutions that should combat crime, government transitions, the New Year’s hangover and break, and even of tourism to spread terror and then negotiate a truce. Also “one of the ingredients that motivated organized crime actions, besides some of those mentioned above, was the pre-electoral period, when governments are at a complete loss and everything becomes a reason for disputes and mutual attacks. In Rio de Janeiro, criminal militias operate with the blessing of the police and death squads also with the complacence of police forces”, wrote news agency Carta Maior.

To the professor of sociology of Helio Alonso College (Facha), Gilson Caroni Filho, “attributing the terror experienced by the Rio de Janeiro population, or of any other urban center, to the absence of a more stringent penal legislation or to recurring dynamics of change of command in the area of security, leads us to forget a significant fact which constitutes the very essence of our social formation. The tragedy of public security is the tragedy of a State that, for never having been fully democratic and observant of the rule of right, failed in combating crime to the same extent it was unable to implement public policies of inclusion”.

Integrating crime enforcement forces in the state is an unquestionable necessity. The assistance provided by the Security National Force and planning the joint action of the governors of the Southeast are also important. “But if public policies are not implemented that consider those who have never been served by the State in their demands for health, education, sanitation and justice, we will be reinforcing the right-wing rationale that preaches repressive action as a universal panacea”, assures Caroni.

Broadening the presence of the public defense office and, as pointed out by Flávio Aguiar in a recent article in Carta Maior, implementing the national policy for minor felons without falling in the trap of extending criminal responsibility are crucial points for a well-succeeded agenda.

Chief-of-staff Dilma Rousseff said that the federal government will increase the budget for the sector this year: “We have forecast increased resources for public security in line with the priority set by the president”, she said. According to her, the amount forecast for the 2007 budget is higher than last year’s and should further increase with authorizations for additional credits.

A survey published by the Ministry of Justice shows that in 2006 the National Fund for Public Security received R$ 354 million according to the budget and R$ 112 million in additional credits, totaling R$ 466 million. In the budget alone, R$ 462.6 million are earmarked for this year.

Workers’ Party III Congress

The Workers’ Party launches on February 10 the party’s III Congress, which will be held on July 6, 7 and 8 this year. The ceremony will take place in Salvador, Bahia, during the 27th anniversary of the PT. The III Congress will focus on three themes: the Brazil we want, the petista socialism, and PT conception and functioning.

On February 9, the International Relations Department will host a seminar on the challenges for the Latin-American and Caribbean left, to which all the Workers’ Party friendly parties will be invited. On the night of the 9th, there will be a dinner with the presence of President Lula. On the 10th, there will be a meeting of the PT National Board, at the end of which the III Congress will be officially launched. On the night of the 10th, there will be a great popular party to commemorate the PT’s 27 years of existence.

There will be two forums of debate. The first will be monthly, in paper, under the form of an insert of the Teoria e Debate magazine. The second will be weekly, electronic, based on the model adopted for the TD Urgente, which was aired at the time of the party’s electoral process.

At least twelve other broad national seminars will be organized by the PT and the Perseu Abramo Foundation, tentatively in the following state capital cities: Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Recife, Aracaju, Fortaleza, Teresina, Rio Branco, Belém and the Federal District. Each of these seminars will have three tables, one for each of the Congress’s themes. The seminars will be broadly covered in partnership with news agency Carta Maior and the democratic press.

Between June 25 and July 5, the national board will organize at least three debates involving signatories of resolutions. Each of these debates will be widely covered via internet, radio, television and press.