The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed yesterday, Thursday, that “Brazil will cease to be a country of monologue, of authoritarianism, of thought imposed by force“.
Leading the first plenary session of the National Council for Economic and Social Development, Lula pointed out that the body “is not a space for people to speak well of the government nor a space for people to only make diagnoses.”
“It is a space for you to help govern this country, for you to say how things should be done,” said the president during the installation of the 246 new members of the Council.
Created by Lula in his first government (2003-2007), the collegiate had been extinguished by former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
The Council’s mission is to assist the president in formulating public policies for economic, social, and sustainable development, as well as to analyze and articulate proposals with sectors of society.
It is a body with representatives from civil society, business, trade unions, social organizations, and academia.
In his speech, President Lula said that the group represents the “face of Brazilian society” and that bringing together people with different thoughts to develop new ideas for the country is a virtue.
Members of the Council who took the floor focused their criticism on the high-interest rate set by the Central Bank, social inequality, and the growth of poverty in the country.
Lula endorsed questioning the interest rate, currently at 13.75 percent per annum, and of the Central Bank president, Roberto Campos Neto.
“It seems that no one can talk about the interest rate as if a single man knew more than 215 million people,” the president said.
The president said, “The poorest suffer the consequences of interest rates”.