Popular Support For Dilma Collapses To 34%

Even Lula has found reasons to criticize some of the policies adopted by Rousseff.

Brazil is – politically speaking – catching on fire and proof of that is that even Dilma’s mentor has had to accept that “some mistakes have been made”. But that does not mean that Lula is taking responsibility for the rampant corruption, or that he accepts the fact that Dilma is also to blame.

It is important to remember that much of the corruption that governs over Brazil today grew out of the complacency of the current and previous administrations, including that of Lula da Silva. Simply explained, having too much power concentrated in one political party causes its members to become arrogant and to a certain degree careless.

Every day seems to be a new opportunity for someone else to open a new front for criticism against the already weakened president of Brazil. In the case of Lula, it is easier to talk once he left office than it was when he was on the saddle.

On Tuesday the presidents, mentor and party colleague, criticized Dilma for her management of the goverment. Lula did so during a speechgiven to hundreds of militants of the Workers Party (PT), social movements and trade unions.

“We all make mistakes. Let’s be clear: we could have increased the price of gasoline in 2012 and not now,” admitted Lula at the first public meeting after the mass protest against the government in March. But Lula’s words are not an admittance of guilt. He is simply trying to imply that the hard measures imposed by the government today are a result of his lack of guts to implement some of them a few years back.

“We’ve had downturns that have not been solely Dilma’s fault,” he said later, as he tried to defend the economic reforms that the president is imposing via Congress. “I did an even stronger economic adjustment in 2003,” he recalled.

Lula appeared in São Paulo to make a promise to his audience on behalf of Rousseff: “When the economy improves, Dilma will adjust the conditions in favor of the poor”. Then, Lula added: “Whoever is here is our companion in good times and in bad times.”

Lula was subtle in his reviews about Dilma as Brazil speculates about alleged tensions between the two, especially since Rousseff named Joaquim Levy as economy minister.

A section of the allied parties of government, plus some unions expressed their revulsion to Levy. The reason is that he is a graduate from the liberal Chicago School and supporter of implementing austerity measures and budget cuts.

Lula da Silva took the opportunity to remind those who complain about the management of PT, that without a PT government there would be no negotiations with the working class. “You wouldn’t even have made it to Brasilia” he said.

In a speech of nearly 50 minutes, Lula synthesized the economic crisis and popular dissatisfaction with the government using a phrase that he often repeated in the era in which he was a trade unionist in the seventies and eighties: “The pawn eating steak does not want to eat second quality meat. The people have become more demanding.”

According to him, the social protests and claims, including those that support Rousseff happen because people have progressed socially and economically and do not want to give up what they have gotten in the past 12 years, the period during which the PT has been in power. This scenario is a good attempt by Lula to disguise the corruption that has also formed during the last 12 years.

Lula is trying to distract people’s attention from the corruption and the misery in which they live, so that they forget about it and concetrate their attention on whatever he thinks people gained over the last 12 years. The fight on the streets, according to Lula, is for what has been achieved, and not against the corruption and impunity.

In addition to experiencing political exhaustion with most of its allies, the government suffers a rift with its own constituents. According to a survey by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE) published Wednesday, government approval fell from 80% in December to 34% in March. This numbers prove Lula is wrong and that his words are sterile. It also shows that he and his party are no longer credible, even in the eyes of their followers.

In one of the few interviews she has given since she started the new term in January, Dilma Rousseff assured Tuesday that the government will reduce its own expenses in the adjustment of public accounts in Brazil. Unfortunately, Dilma forgot to say that the expenses that the government intends to reduce or cut are those directed to social programs, not the wasteful practices that are deeply rooted in the bureaucracy.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the president warned: “Let’s cut and streamline government spending.” According to her, so it will be possible to improve public accounts which will make Brazil gain the confidence of investors and markets.

What will be the effect of speeches such as the one given by Lula in São Paulo? What, if any, will be the result of promises such as the ones made by Dilma? We will all see on April12, when a new nationwide round of protests is expected to take place. Right now, the government fears that those protests can be as large as the ones seen on March 15.

Luis R. Miranda is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief at The Real Agenda. His career spans over 18 years and almost every form of news media. His articles include subjects such as environmentalism, Agenda 21, climate change, geopolitics, globalisation, health, vaccines, food safety, corporate control of governments, immigration and banking cartels, among others. Luis has worked as a news reporter, on-air personality for Live and Live-to-tape news programs. He has also worked as a script writer, producer and co-producer on broadcast news. Read more about Luis.