Mar 03 2023 | Nº. 56

Editorial

During last year’s presidential campaign, and many times since taking office, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has insisted that the success of his unprecedented third term will rest on his ability to turn around Brazil’s economy. This week, the president faced an important decision on that front. The country’s interest rates, which are among the highest in the world, have been at the center of tensions between the president and the head of the independent Central Bank in recent weeks. With that issue still in the background, the administration announced on Monday, February 27 that it would reimpose federal taxes on fuel starting this week. The proposal was pushed by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, and the decision provoked intense debate within the governing Workers’ Party (PT).

On one hand, some argued that the economic situation for most Brazilians remains too precarious to deal with higher fuel costs. Collecting additional federal taxes, even if only a few cents per liter, could spell political trouble for a government that promised to meet the needs of poor and working-class Brazilians first. On the other hand, Haddad and others in delicate technocratic roles insisted that the only path toward reducing the grave budgetary imbalance left by former president Jair Bolsonaro is to gradually increase government revenues. Haddad insisted that the previous administration spent recklessly in its final year and cut fuel taxes in order to boost its prospects in the election. Now, the Lula government has to get the nation’s books in order so as to renew the country’s economic prospects. 

In general terms, Lula sided with Haddad. Indeed, to do otherwise would have been a powerful blow to Haddad’s standing, many analysts and political observers observed. The relationship between Lula and Haddad is not merely about this year or the next. Haddad, of course was the PT’s presidential candidate in 2018, and Haddad present himself for national office in the future. He enjoys a close relationship of trust with Lula, by almost every account. Whatever political designs Haddad has for the future are dependent on a successful Lula administration. However, within the party there were important figures who call into question Haddad’s recommendations. For example, Congresswoman Gleisi Hoffman, the president of the PT, was at odds with Haddad on the point of gas taxes, as on several other issues. These differences can thus be understood not only as representing a different economic vision but different political poles within Latin America’s largest leftwing party. Balancing the diverse nature of his broad coalition will be difficult enough for Lula over the next four years. The same is true for the balancing act within his own party. 

Highlights

• RECORD PROFITS. Petrobras, a mixed capital oil company whose largest shareholder is the Brazilian State, had record profits in 2022, equivalent to U$ 36.1 billion. This value is 76% higher than the profits obtained in 2021 and represents the highest annual profits ever recorded by a Brazilian company. As a result, Petrobras became the second largest payer of dividends to its shareholders worldwide.

• REDISTRIBUTION OF DIVIDENDS. Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said that Petrobras' profits are "exorbitant." The Brazilian government wants the board of directors responsible for the company's management to approve the retention of US$ 1.2 billion of the US$ 6.8 billion that would be passed on as dividends to its shareholders. In addition, the government wants to institute a 9.2 percent tax on Brazilian oil exports in order to subsidize part of the taxes charged to the Brazilian consumer. This week, Haddad announced the return of fuel tax collection that had been suspended by Jair Bolsonaro. The measure had been taken by the now ex-president as an electoral weapon in his failed re-election campaign.

• FALLING UNEMPLOYMENT. The unemployment rate registered in the last quarter of 2022 in Brazil reached its lowest level (7.9 percent) since February 2015. For the entire year, this index was 9.3 percent, which also represents the lowest rate in the last eight years. Even so, the country has 8.6 million unemployed.

• CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON THE COUP. This week, the opposition to the Lula government reached the minimum number of signatures necessary to set up a mixed Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, made up of members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, to investigate the failed coup attempt on January 8, 2023. At least one party, União Brasil, that is part of the government's base of support and occupies three ministries, supports the initiative.

• POLITICAL STRAIN. The opening of a parliamentary investigation into the events of January 8 would create serious tensions for the government in the Congress. For this reason, parliamentarians loyal to President Lula are working to convince allied parliamentarians to withdraw their signatures so that Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, who presides over the Senate, delays the procedures for the establishment of a commission. Although those involved in the coup attempt are from the extreme Right, parliamentarians linked to this political sector seek to distort the facts and claim that the Left was involved in the invasion of the presidential palace, the Congress, and the seat of the Supreme Court.

• ANNIVERSARY OF THE COUP. The Ministry of Defense ordered military commanders to refrain from making any official statement alluding to March 31, the day that will mark the 59th anniversary of the 1964 coup d'état, which established a 21-year dictatorship in Brazil. In the four years of the Bolsonaro government, mentions of the date were common. March 31 is treated by the military as the “Revolution of 1964,” not as a coup.

• SLAVE LABOR. The Ministry of Labor and the Federal Police discovered around 200 workers who were kept in conditions similar to slavery in wineries in Bento Gonçalves, a grape, wine, sparkling wine, and juice producer in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. The workers, mostly from the state of Bahia in the country’s northeast region, were subjected to 15-hour workdays without rest and were forced to purchase overpriced food in a local supermarket, which were then deducted from their paycheck. Many told the police that they were prohibited from leaving the premises, where they were subjected to physical punishment, including beatings, electric shocks, and pepper spray.

• SUSPICIOUS FLIGHT. Minister of Communications Juscelino Filho faces pressure to be sacked from office after having used an Air Force plane and having received per diems for four and a half days for a trip to São Paulo, to attend an auction of race horses. The minister defends himself saying that he had work meetings at the time. Opposition senator Damares Alves, a former Bolsonaro minister, has filed a lawsuit requesting the opening of a formal investigation against Lula's minister, who also faces pressure to resign from civil society anti-corruption organizations.

• WBO RESEARCH FELLOWS. On Friday, February 24, the WBO announced that it is receiving applications for its Research Fellows program for the period from March 2023 to February 2024. Applicants must submit a thousand-word project proposal about their planned collaboration with the WBO, which is due on March 20th. Those selected will be contacted by email at the end of the selection process. This is an unpaid and non-residential program.

Feature Article

by Vanessa Dolce de Faria

March 8, 2023: No Callem

The proximity of March 8, International Women's Day, annually invites reflection on the enormous inequalities that persist between men and women. If it is true that women suffer varying degrees of discrimination and sexist violence, which vary according to income, skin color, or place of origin of each of us, it is also true that we are united by being born with a certain sex, the “second sex” mentioned by Simone Beauvoir, who also taught that there is nothing that essentially defines us as women. There seems to be, on the other hand, a certain universality resulting from the common inequality that affects all of us, and that is why an international date, celebrated all over the world, makes so much sense. There is a famous quote by Virginia Woolf that echoes this condition: “As woman I have no country, as a woman I want no country, as a woman my country is the whole world”.

I was reminded of this phrase when following the repercussions of the recent arrest in Spain of a well-known Brazilian soccer player accused of rape. This fact led to the dissemination, in Brazil, of an administrative measure by the City of Barcelona, voluntarily adopted for leisure spaces and nightlife in the fight against harassment and sexual assault, and which was applied in the case in question. The “No Callem” protocol (both “We don’t shut up” and “We must not shut up” in Catalan) has become a reference and inspiration for several bills, in various Brazilian legislative bodies, and the object of great interest by the press and public opinion.  In Barcelona, the idea was generated by a feminist organization, which suggested the adoption of reference locations, to which victims of harassment could resort during the street parties usually held in different neighborhoods of the city. The idea won an award from the city of Barcelona in 2016. Given the success of the initiative in the public space, the city decided to transplant the model to private night establishments, and hence the protocol was born in 2018. The story behind “No Callem” is interesting because it shows an achievement that was born from social mobilization, prospered with government support, and gained visibility with the participation of the private sector.

In this world where examples and struggles circulate, inspire, and make us think about our own challenges, it is sad that we reach another March 8th without having advanced in many issues related to women in Brazil. Our “No Callem” is still an initiative of women's groups only, especially “Não é não!” during Carnival, and it depends on its success through legislative initiatives.

Thinking about Brazil's backwardness in these matters, it is impossible not to remember the issue of abortion. In the European Union, abortion is legal in 26 out of 27 countries (the exception being Malta). In Spain, it has been legal since 2010, and last February it was definitively considered constitutional by the country's supreme court. Thirteen years after the approval of the law, there is a solid consensus around its suitability, recognized today, even by political leaders who at the time questioned it in court. A new Spanish sexual and reproductive health law was recently approved, which expands rights related to abortion and brings innovations such as the possibility of sick leave for painful menstruation.

In Brazil, there is talk about the public health reasons that should lead to the legalization of abortion. After all, there are thousands of women who die every year for not being able to have a safe abortion, and we already know that abortion does not cease to exist because it is illegal. However, the argument of social justice should weigh more heavily, as abortion is a true thermometer of our inequality. High-income Brazilian women, mostly white, have safe abortions. Those who die are the poor, and black, precisely those who make up the majority of the Brazilian population. Even so, the topic remains taboo. Political leaders and opinion makers cowardly avoid any debate about the issue. “No Callem,” not being silent in the face of this scenario, should be an ethical imperative for all of us.

Looking again at examples that might inspire us, abortion in France was legalized almost fifty years ago. The woman who carried on that battle now rests in the Pantheon, where France pays homage to her heroes. The heroine was Simone Weil, then Minister of Health, a survivor of the Holocaust. From the center-right, she focused the debate not only on public health and social justice, but also on freedom, one of the founding values of the French Republic. The French women needed to be free to decide.

Around us, the Argentineans, Colombians and Uruguayans fortunately already have the right to an abortion, but the Brazilians still don't. Nor do we have many other important things, as it is always necessary to repeat. The main one, perhaps a fundamental condition for progress in other issues, is parity in the spaces of power. Representativeness is a question not only of demographic fairness, but of visibility. It contributes to naturalizing the female presence in spaces still dominated by men. Women are now only 18 percent in the National Congress. At the moment, there is no woman in the leadership bodies of the Senate, and only one among the eleven leaders of the Chamber of Deputies. We are a predominantly female country, but among the diplomats who represent us around the world, women make up a mere 23 percent. For the first time, more women are leading ministries in Brazil, but still eleven out of 37. If there are some reasons to celebrate this March 8th, there are farmore others which require us to remain mobilized.

Vanessa Dolce de Faria is a Brazilian diplomat, currently Deputy Consul General of Brazil in Barcelona. The views expressed here are personal and do not represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.