Bolsonaro's millionaire weapon to extract votes from Lula: a payment for the poor

Edeleusa Pereira, beneficiary of the Auxilio Brasil anti-poverty payment, accompanied by her granddaughters in Salvador de Bahía last Tuesday. Matheus Leite (EL PAÍS)

The Brazilian Camila Reis, 34, has arrived here before seven in the morning with the last money she had left.

Five reais, less than a dollar.

And on the bus that has brought her to this square where she is queuing in front of a bank branch, she has been robbed.

It has not been an assault, but the driver, who has kept the 10 cents of the return.

"I have nothing left, I hope the money is there, for the glory of God," says Mrs. Reis under the harsh midday sun in Periperi, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Salvador de Bahia.

With the patience of the poor and renewed faith, she trusts that the queue will move forward, the paperwork will be in order and she will receive the monthly payment from the Brazilian Government for the poor.

She derives from the famous and effective Bolsa family,

that President Jair Bolsonaro renamed it Auxilio Brasil to disassociate it from Lula da Silva's Workers' Party.

With an eye on the elections, he has managed to increase the amount by 50%.

Thanks to a legislative and accounting maneuver, the president has obtained 7,500 million dollars from the public coffers that he has already begun to distribute among three groups: the poor, with the hope that part of them will turn their backs on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , and taxi and truck drivers, among whom he hopes to strengthen the support they already give him.

For the former, inflation hits them very hard;

to the seconds, the rise in fuels.

Bahia, part of the blackest and most needy Brazil, is Lula territory.

Here the former president was an idol of the masses even in his worst times.

This Tuesday morning, the queue in front of the Caixa Economica goes around the block.

Reis comes to collect the Brazil Aid.

He needs help to support his five children, build a shack and, first of all, for the ticket back to his neighborhood.

For eight months now, this thin woman and her offspring have lived on the charity of other faithful of the Pentecostal Church.

"I'm out of gas, out of a fridge," she says.

Nothing exceptional in a country where 33 million people go hungry.

Camilla Reis, in line at the bank to collect the payment against poverty, last Tuesday in Periperi, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Salvador de Bahía. Matheus Leite (EL PAÍS)

He says that the two young children have been left in the care of the 12-year-old, Uedison, who "is more responsible than many men," he shoots.

Skinny, the tattoos that he shows off on his arms contrast with the skirt below the knee and the tight bow;

indicate that she was not always evangelical.

She grew up in faith, she strayed from the path, her boyfriend was in jail and, when she regained her freedom, he betrayed her with another and appropriated her shack.

Faced with such a cataract of calamities, she returned to the church.

She is part of the minority of undecided before these elections.

Her priority right now is pay.

This female head of a family is part of the 20 million Brazilian families that in recent days have begun to receive 600 reais a month (115 dollars) from Aid Brazil.

If Bolsa Familia was around 190 reais, Bolsonaro raised it to 400 after the pandemic and now to 600. The pay is his main weapon to turn around the polls, which put Lula 15 points ahead, according to Datafolha, the poll more reliable.

This indicates that among those who receive the Brazil Aid, 56% will vote for the former president and 28% for the current president.

Getting votes from Lula in Bahia is quite a challenge because the states of the northeast coast of Brazil are the traditional voting granary of the former president and the PT.

During his two terms in office, these humble people prospered like never before thanks to the bonanza derived from the boom in raw materials and the redistribution of wealth.

Three figures give an idea of ​​how vital social aid is here now.

Bahia has 16 million inhabitants, 1.8 million formal jobs and 2.2 million families that depend on the Brazil Aid payment.

A situation that is repeated with greater or lesser intensity in a third of the states.

Edeleusa Pereira, 55, has been unemployed for many years now after a lifetime as a housemaid on odd days, without contributing.

She is happy that her help has increased, but she says that she can't even afford to pay all the bills.

"Sometimes I have pending bills, I have to pay them with the card or in installments," explains this fervent admirer of Lula.

She appreciates the help but has no intention of voting for Bolsonaro, whom she considers nefarious, one of the worst rulers.

All the confidence of Mrs. Pereira is deposited in a victory for the PT.

Because, although she doesn't quite believe it, the amount of the pay will be due at the end of the year, just before the next president takes office.

“They keep saying that the 600 reais are until December, but Lula is going to keep it.

I have faith in him."

He immediately remembers that the first round is on October 2 and that, "if necessary, there will be a second on October 30."

And if Lula wins, what should be his first decision?

“First, lower the price of things because everything is very expensive.

I'm already getting wings from so much chicken.

Before, with Lula, we used to make barbecue”, he recalls.

Adailton Andrade, a collector of recyclable material who has not been able to ask for help online, last Tuesday in the Periperi neighborhood, in Salvador de Bahía. Matheus Leite (EL PAÍS)

The queues to collect the pay that go around the block are not the only problem, emphasizes the architect Wila Carvalho, 28, and an activist for Salvador Invisível.

The Internet procedures that those who live connected are so grateful for are an insurmountable wall for people like Adailton Andrade, 43, a cardboard recycler.

“To apply for help you had to make an appointment online.

I tried it with my daughter, with her cell phone, we tried again and again, but we didn't succeed, ”he explains resignedly.

The activist herself participates in an advisory council of the authorities where she has proposed monthly courses to prepare users to successfully face the digital bureaucracy.

Albanise Santos, 37, and also a resident of Periperi, has been receiving pay since her second child was born three years ago.

She used to be the secretary of a PT deputy.

Although she has been leaving resumes here and there for some time, nobody calls her to offer her a job beyond her former bosses, who want her to get involved in the electoral campaign.

She says that she will only accept if they offer her a permanent job in return.

The 600 reales supplement her husband's salary.

As long as there is no unforeseen event, this home where the kids have soup for dinner and the adults have bread and coffee, manage to make ends meet.

“In June the two children got sick at the same time and went crazy.

The pharmacy bill alone was 400 reais… We paid half and the other half on credit,” he says at the doors of the house where seven adults and three children live.

Mrs. Santos is determined to vote for Lula.

And she agrees with the analysts that the elections are going to be very close "Around here there are many who are not from the PT but they are going to vote for Lula, to see if we throw out Bolsonaro and things improve a little."

Immense are the expectations raised by the leftist among the most vulnerable Brazilians.

The two favorites have promised that if they win the Brazil Aid payment, it will continue.

How much it will be remains to be seen.

In any case, Mrs. Reis is cautious: “I can't rely on help alone.

I need to find another steady source of income”, she stresses as she tries to find a shadow without losing her place in line at the bank.

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