Lula, together with the president of the PT and several parliamentarians, greets the public this Friday after a press conference in Brasilia.Eraldo Peres (AP)
A month after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva begins his third term as president of Brazil, he has not yet announced a single name of the future government, not even that of the person who will take the reins of the economy, the main challenge.
The president-elect, who heads a coalition of a dozen parties, has been in Brasilia all week immersed in a carousel of contacts.
Its most pressing mission is to negotiate with its partners the composition of the Government and with Congress, which will allow it to circumvent the spending ceiling and thus be able to fulfill its main electoral promise: that the 21 million poorest among its compatriots continue to receive a monthly payment of 600 reais (115 dollars, 109 euros).
Lula will only reveal his government after December 12, as he explained this Friday to the press in the capital, Brasilia.
That day is the ceremony in which the Superior Electoral Tribunal will definitively formalize the victory, achieved on October 30.
"I already have 80% of the ministries in my head," he said, but he also wanted to remember that he won as part of a very broad project to defeat Bolsonaro: "This government is not for me but for the victorious forces that supported to achieve this victory”.
One of the main mantras of the leftist in the campaign was that "the poor will return to the budget", that social policies would be a priority as in his first two terms (2003-2010).
Public accounts are in a precarious situation and Lula needs to get funds to meet those most in need, which are many.
15% of Brazilians go hungry and a third live in poverty or even worse, in extreme poverty.
The Workers' Party (PT) presented a legislative proposal this week that seeks to leave out of the limit imposed by the spending ceiling a gigantic item for the next four years – the duration of a presidential term.
The proposed figure is 198,000 million reais (about 37,000 million dollars), which would be destined above all to maintain that monthly payment for the poor.
"I hope that your honorable Members have sensitivity," Lula said.
"And if an agreement needs to be reached, we know how to negotiate."
The Congress, also elected now and where Bolsonarismo has in principle a majority, will undoubtedly charge Lula dearly for the support he needs.
And the deadlines are pressing.
The inauguration is scheduled for New Year's Day.
The name that sounds the most for the Ministry of Finance is Fernando Haddad, who was the PT's presidential candidate when the leader was imprisoned as well as minister and mayor of São Paulo.
The markets, which have received with disgust and losses the complaints of the president-elect with the corset that the spending ceiling supposes, undoubtedly preferred someone more liberal to take over the reins of the main economy of Latin America, which in the last quarter grew only 0.4%.
Simultaneously, inflation and unemployment are moderating.
Matching the ministries' sudoku is hell because Lula needs to satisfy multiple interests: those of his party, the PT, with its various ideological currents, but also those of the dozen formations that embraced his leadership with the mission of safeguarding Brazilian democracy. .
Thus he gained the support of former adversaries situated well to his right and well to his left.
And then there is territorial representation, which in Brazil is key, and the promises of a future government with more ministers, blacks and indigenous people.
Reflecting the difficulties of reconciling so many demands, Lula has already warned this Friday that what was going to be the "ministry of the original peoples" may remain in a secretariat dependent on the Presidency.
The only respite in his busy political schedule is the World Cup.
Like almost all of his compatriots, he doesn't miss a game.
And he puts on the yellow shirt, which the leftists stopped using as it became a Bolsonaro symbol.
The president-elect has confessed that after his recent throat operation he was not silent for a day, but he has insisted that he is fine: "I think I have divine help to heal me," he commented.
The monthly aid to cover the most pressing needs of the poorest is based on the old Bolsa Família, a program applauded for its efficiency and cheapness that is the great symbol of the PT's progressive policies.
Upon coming to power, President Jair Bolsonaro renamed it Auxilio Brasil because he wanted to wrest that powerful electoral brand from the left.
When the pandemic arrived, the amount increased, the number of beneficiaries increased, and it became one of his main electoral claims.
In reality, maintaining that salary of 600 reais was the great electoral promise of both Bolsonaro and Lula, the only point of agreement between two antagonistic visions to the extreme.
In the days of the PT, the amount of Bolsa Família was a third of the current one.
But Lula assumed at the beginning of the campaign that he could not touch the 600 reais.
He does intend to resume requirements eliminated by Bolsonaro, such as guaranteeing that the children of the included families go to school, are vaccinated, and that pregnant women undergo medical check-ups.
Bolsonaro obtained funds to pay for this aid until December 31 - the last day of his term - through a maneuver: Congress renewed the emergency declaration even though the pandemic had subsided as long as it remained among the exceptions contemplated to bypass the constitutional limits to the public spending.
Thus Bolsonaro was able to attend the elections with the Brazil Help as a great hook to attract the poor.
It was insufficient.
Lula beat him by two million votes.
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