Huck Advocates Private Donations in Election Campaigns and Parliamentarianism

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Widely touted to run for the Presidency of the Republic in 2022, TV host Luciano Huck dodged questions on his plans, but discussed extensively elections and politics in an event on Friday, October 25th, in São Paulo.

He advocated changes in campaign funding, said he endorsed the district vote and showed sympathy for parliamentarianism.

“I think we have to review donations. Through criteria, but it cannot be solely and exclusively public funding to support the parties and elections,” he said at a seminar held by Comunitas, an independent organization that works in partnership with governments and private initiative.

“Limiting political party and electoral funding to only one public fund, in the amount that it is today, managed and administered by those within it — I don’t think it is the most efficient and democratic system,” he said.

According to him, what existed “in the past, you could donate to anyone at any time, regardless of your ideology and your beliefs, just didn’t work. You have to bring that back into the debate”. Private donations were banned in 2015 by Brazil’s Supreme Court.

The TV Globo host, who is not affiliated with any party, said he had reservations about the possibility of authorization for independent candidates in Brazil. The Federal Supreme Court (STF) will hold a public hearing on the issue in December and will judge an action on the possibility of allowing the candidacy of non-party-affiliated individuals.

“I don’t know if independent candidacies with more than 30 parties would contribute at this time,” Huck said. He pointed out the need for a comprehensive political reform, to institute the system of total or mixed district voting and strengthen the parties.

“So that [parties] are fewer in number, so that they are not corrupt platforms for selling time on television, or simply for political negotiations,” he argued. Parliamentarianism, he said, could also be a viable model in Brazil, to improve “the relationship of the Executive Branch with the Legislative Branch and with society as a whole”.

Huck refrained from commenting on Jair Bolsonaro’s government after the president rebutted previous criticisms by him and accused him of being “part of the chaos” for having bought a jet with funding from the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development).

Without naming the president, the TV host said that voters in 2018 “deposited much hope” in a savior of the fatherland, and said that exaggerated promises were made “in the last electoral cycle”.

Huck also expressed his opinion on the risk of outbreaks of street demonstrations in Brazil, like those that have affected countries in Latin America and other regions, with a spirit similar to that of the June 2013 protests.

In his opinion, the immediate risk is low, but long-term protests are possible if “life does not improve for real” and the population feels a gap between what governments and politicians pledge and what they actually deliver.

At this point, he insisted on the need to address the growing inequality in the country and said that former President Lula is highly respected, particularly in the Northeast, where most of the improvements in the lives of impoverished people occurred during the leftist’s years.

Speaking about a trip he made to Piauí to record his TV show, he said that “Lula is very respected there, very much so”. But he pointed out that the advances in the region were the result of two administrations: of the PT party and of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso from the PSDB party. “Much of the politics came from Ms. Ruth [Cardoso]. There is a legacy of two governments that have worked continuously on social protection projects”.

Supporter of the RenovaBR and Agora! groups, he reiterated the discourse that he has sought to act politically through civic movements and said he was against anticipating the debate on presidential succession.”

“I’m standing here as an active citizen. Coming into this (boxing) ring of personified debate now, I really don’t think it helps,” he said, demanding a greater focus on solving the country’s most immediate problems instead of electoral speculation.

Asked to talk about social media, the host said he was a victim of mass attacks and felt that the virtual environment is more aggressive than real life. “I have been fiercely attacked on the networks these past three months,” he said.

“The temperature of social media in Brazil is not that of the streets, really. And this is a problem that we will have to face.”

For Huck, political polarization, although negative, may signal new routes. “Maybe it is not bringing an immediate positive consequence for democracy, but everyone is talking about it. So let’s use it and point out a possible path.”

He tried to position himself in the middle path: he agrees with liberal theories, but believes it is necessary to pay attention to social policies and reduce inequality. This he summarizes as an efficient State or an affective State.

“The world today is very asymmetrical. What the UN imagined the world would become has not happened, what Marxism thought has not worked, what liberalism thought has not worked. I think it is very unfair to leave the political class alone trying to solve the problem of society as a whole,” he philosophized.

In his participation in the 12th Meeting of Leaders of Comunitas, the TV host spoke on stage with businessman Carlos Jereissati Filho (Iguatemi group), who is his colleague in the Agora! movement, and also nephew of Senator Tasso Jereissati, one of the experienced politicians who have been discussing the candidacy with Huck.

Throughout his speech, the host reiterated that the audience included some of the current leaders he most admires – some of whom have even become his frequent contacts. Politicians such as the former governor of Espírito Santo Paulo Hartung and the governors of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, of Pará, Helder Barbalho, and of Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado, were scattered at the tables.

Also present were: entrepreneurs Guilherme Leal (Natura), Elie Horn (Cyrela) – who took the microphone to suggest to the host the creation of the “Ministry of Good” – and Rubens Ometto (Cosan), as well as deputies of the Partido Novo, and former senator Jorge Bornhausen, who he thanked for the way he was welcomed, with “kind words”, in an interview published by Folha de S. Paulo, where Bornhausen said the political center will support Huck, rather than João Doria, against both PT and Bolsonaro in 2022.

Source: Folhapress