Demonstrators protest against the military dictatorship and the Government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro this Wednesday in Brasilia (Brazil) .Joedson Alves / EFE
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is modulating his discourse on the coronavirus, placing increasing emphasis on the need to vaccinate, which he initially scorned.
This Saturday he declared that his “war is not political, in reference to the battle he is waging with mayors and governors for measures to contain the virus that has led to the hospital collapse.
In reality, it is a duel "for the future of the nation," according to Bolsonaro in an intervention broadcast on social networks together with the new Defense Minister, General Walter Braga Netto.
Bolsonaro has been seen in a food distribution center for people in need on the outskirts of Brasilia.
From there, wearing a leather jacket and before a plate of the soup they distribute, he has spoken about politics and the coronavirus after the most turbulent week of his mandate.
It began with a profound ministerial reshuffle that affected six portfolios, including those of Foreign Affairs and Defense.
The next day the military leadership resigned en bloc.
The pressure of the economic class and the Congress have made the president no longer plague vaccination.
Those sectors have made it clear that without mass immunization it will be impossible for the economy to recover.
That is why Bolsonaro has boasted that this Friday and this Saturday Brazil has managed to give more than a million injections a day.
11% of Brazilians have received one dose, 3% both.
But in the line that he has maintained since the first cases, he has insisted that the economy is a priority.
“We cannot forget the issue of employment.
The virus knows that we are fighting it with vaccines.
We support protection measures.
Now, everything has a limit ”, he has said to reject outright what he has called the“ close everything ”policy.
In reality, few cities have adopted rigid confinement, with essential activities, and no public transportation.
The vast majority of the country, including the two largest cities, have chosen to advance a handful of holidays from this year and next so that people can stay home without the political cost of decreeing a strict closure.
It is unknown whether Bolsonaro, who passed the coronavirus in the first wave, will be vaccinated or not.
At first he said no way.
This Thursday he declared instead that he would be the last of the Brazilians to do so.
Vaccination of people his age, 66, has already started in Brasilia, where he lives.
In recent days, his vice president, General Hamilton Mourão, received the injection.
Precisely this Saturday, former leftist president Lula da Silva has received the second prick, just a couple of weeks after a judge has cleared the way for a candidacy next year.
The new health minister, the fourth since the start of the pandemic, is the doctor Marcelo Quiroga.
This Saturday he has asked the public to wear a mask and not to crowd.
“The order is to avoid total closure, but we have to do our part.
It is not a matter for federal, state or municipal governments alone.
It is also a matter that concerns each of the citizens ”.
Ignoring that speech, neither Bolsonaro, nor the minister nor the bodyguards wore a mask, unlike the employees of the local food distribution.
The Government has two issues on the agenda for next week that it hopes will mitigate the damage of the pandemic.
On the one hand, as of Tuesday, the payment of the coronavirus pay is resumed, which is expected to be paid in this second phase by some 40 million people who have been left without a source of income, many of them workers in the informal sector.
The other measure is intended to attract investment.
The Executive plans to tender in the coming days the concession of various infrastructures.
The battery of tenders includes 22 airports, five port terminals and a railway section with which the authorities hope to achieve 10 billion reais (1.7 billion dollars, 1.5 billion euros).
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