President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva today marks one year since his return to power and also Brazil’s return to the world, as he promised in his election campaign, to improve the lives of workers.
During 2023, the South American giant assumed the rotating presidency of the Common Market of the South, the United Nations Security Council, and the G20, a group made up of the 19 largest economies in the world plus the African Union and the European Union.
“We have recovered dialogue with the world and our international credibility,” said the founder of the Workers’ Party, addressing the country for Christmas and the New Year’s holidays.
He insisted that Brazil “has once again been listened to in the most important international forums, on issues such as the fight against hunger, inequality, the search for peace and tackling the climate emergency”.
The president visited 24 countries in 2023 and was away for 62 days. He has made 15 international trips since taking office.
In his speech, he also indicated that his administration brought back and strengthened social policies that have changed the country, such as Bolsa Familia (for the neediest), Mi Casa, Mi Vida, the Más Médicos program and Farmacia Popular.
Similarly, two million new jobs were created during the calendar year and the minimum wage rose again above inflation.
We approved equal pay for men and women. “Equal work, equal pay,” the progressive leader said, certifying that the nation had moved from the 12th to the ninth largest economy on the planet.
He described as historic the approval of the controversial tax reform, as “something that was attempted 40 years ago”.
Despite the progress made, analysts recommend that in 2024 the efforts undertaken by the government to approve an economic agenda should translate into an effective increase in revenue capable of leading Brazil to the dream of balanced public accounts.
At the beginning of the month and his marked attempt to pacify the country, Lula confirmed that he would hold an event on 8 January to mark one year since the invasion and looting by extremists of the headquarters of the three branches of government in the capital.
He informed that he would invite governors, parliamentarians, and businessmen to the meeting to ” remind the people” that democracy prevented an attempted coup attempt in Brazil.
According to the head of state, the meeting will serve to corroborate the insecurity that the “democratic regime” is the only thing with certainty and that the institutions work and the people have access to share in the wealth they produce.
Although Brazil’s history never made it a specific target for terrorist groups, the polarisation and visceral hate speech emanating from power four years ago led to such acts, political commentators deduced.
Radical supporters of the then-defeated president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) enjoyed setting up encampments, under the banner of non-violent protests and free speech, in cities and especially in Brasília, against the result of the October elections and the assumption of power for the third time by the son of the working class.
However, on 8 January 2023, the mask fell, the order was given and almost seven thousand Bolsonarista extremists (followers of the ex-military man), under shouts of military intervention, violently stormed and ransacked the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the Planalto Palace, the seat of the executive branch.
The invasion provoked an answer from the STF, which ordered the immediate imprisonment of many of those involved in the coup.
“In the name of defending democracy, we will not be authoritarian with anyone, but we will not be lukewarm with anyone. We will investigate and get to those who financed” the anti-democratic acts, Lula promised.
