Lula da Silva announces wage increases above inflation if he becomes president of Brazil again

Former president (2003-2010) and Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced yesterday, Saturday, that if he is elected, his government will pursue a policy of wage increases above inflation and will work to meet workers’ demands.

“People will have better paying jobs again. The minimum wage will be above the inflation rate every year, which we will do,” Lula said at a rally in the center of São Paulo, the country’s largest city and the largest in the southern hemisphere.

The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT, left) is the favorite in the polls to win the presidential election next October, leading by between 15 and nine points over Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election as the conservative candidate of the Liberal Party (PL, right).

Lula da Silva argued that his government if elected, “will take care of the people like a mother takes care of her children,” giving as an example that the priority is working people and not the wealthiest part of the population.

“People want to eat first-class products, buy first-class products. The government should not care about the rich and the bankers, but the working people,” he said.

He reiterated that if elected, one of his first actions would be to adjust the income tax scale for employees.

“The one who pays taxes every month is the one who receives a salary from which taxes are deducted,” Lula de Silva said at an event also attended by vice presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, Sao Paulo state gubernatorial candidate Fernando Haddad and former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).

The former trade unionist also announced that Brazil would once again pursue a “haughty and active” foreign policy in the event of his third electoral victory.

In this context, he stressed that “priority must be given to relations with Africa and South America.”

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