By Gustavo A Maranges on May 29, 2022
ushering out Bolsonaro’s neoliberalism, photo: Bill Hackwell
Brazil is one of those countries with the greatest political and economic weight in Latin America. Now, in the context of October’s presidential elections, the country’s most conservative sectors, led by current President Jair Bolsonaro, intend to make their last moves to dismantle as much as possible any possible hint of social policy. How to understand this harmful behavior and how important it is to make sure that it does not happen again are two questions worth commenting on.
Recently, Bolsonaro’s government has announced it will cut almost US$2.8 billion from education, science, technology, and health. These funds will be allocated to increase federal police salaries, an unfulfilled promise from his 2018 presidential campaign. The initial cut was only US$1.7 billion, but then Bolsonaro extended the benefit to the entire federal police force, increasing the final amount by US$1.1 billion.
It is an obvious electoral measure whereby the current president intends to benefit a historically conservative sector, which is part of his electoral base. There is no other logic to justify this decision since the reality of the South American giant indicates that it desperately necessary to do the opposite, meaning, to increase spending on the areas most affected from the strong impact of the pandemic in these sectors.
According to the Brazilian government, the Ministry of Education will receive US$675 million less, the Health Ministry’s budget will be cut by US$530 million, while the Ministry of Science and Technology will be cut by almost US$615 million. However, the one catch is that this plan needs to be approved by the National Parliament before entering into force.
The government proposal has been strongly criticized by broad sectors of the Brazilian society, some of which have threatened general strikes. For many of them, it is unthinkable to proceed that way ever since the country is still struggling to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brazilian healthcare system has deteriorated sharply due to the overload generated by the pandemic. Beyond the deterioration of the infrastructure, there is accumulated fatigue in the medical field, whose working conditions and real wages will suffer instead of improving. Sadly, this is the neoliberals’ way of rewarding a sector that has made tireless efforts amid chaotic management of the pandemic, which has lasted for over two years now.
Bolsonaro’s social expenditure policy widely differs from the ideas of the Workers’ Party (PT) government (2003-2016) on this issue. While, the administrations of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff had their problems but they made an undeniable effort to increase investment in the sectors later besieged by Bolsonaro during his tenure.
During the PT governments, investment in science and technology tripled from 2002 to 2015. Today, with this new blow, Bolsonaro will take these sectors’ funding below the 2002 threshold (without taking into account that the Brazilian Real has depreciated over 250% during the period.
On top of that, Rousseff invested in a tripartite cooperation contract with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Cuba to strengthen public health services in the neediest communities, thus relieving the workload of thousands of community doctors in the country. Something that neoliberals immediately squashed after receiving a direct order from Washington regardless of the damages it may cause to millions of Brazilians.
Bolsonaro is aware that the current electoral scenario is not looking good for him. The reelection chances are practically zero given the strong support of former President and PT candidate Luis I. Lula da Silva. Thus, the measure is not only an electoral strategy but a way to further complicate the next government’s scenario. If Lula wins the elections, as all signs seem to indicate, he will have the titanic task of implementing a recovery plan aiming to mitigate the devastating effects of 8 austere years of neoliberal administrations, aggravated by an adverse post-pandemic international economic context.
Actions like this demonstrate the true essence of Brazil’s neoliberal and conservative sectors. Policies such as these have prevented Brazil, Argentina, and Chile’s economic development towards an economy based on higher value-added services, or those responsible for the lack of a Latin America vaccine for COVID-19 other than the Cuban ones. Likewise, they are actions that affect the technological development of states, which is increasingly essential for real sovereignty.
Lula’s re-election in Brazil offers hope for Brazilians, but the only real solution lies in the organization of social and political movements strong enough to confront any attempt to advance by neoliberal forces or their proxies, regardless of the political sign of the government. Constant and organized popular pressure is the only guarantee peoples have against the neoliberal right-wing that dominates the power structures in most of the continent.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English