Sao Paulo (EFE).- The President-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, confirmed this Thursday the strong social accent that his government will have and assured hundreds of garbage collectors that the poor “have the right to rights”.
As in the past 19 years, even while he ruled the country, between 2003 and 2010, Lula on Thursday held an emotional meeting with cooperatives of garbage collectors and the homeless, to whom he assured that his government would “restore their dignity” »that« they were robbed».
He was alluding to the lack of pro-poor policies during the tenure of far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who will step down from power on January 1 after losing last October’s elections.
“I know the lack of respect and solidarity” that they “have suffered in recent years,” said Lula, who assured that the new government “will create the conditions for them to be able to do their role and their job be respected”.
The President-elect assured that the poor and homeless “are not treated as vagabonds but as people abandoned by the rulers” and that they are now “regaining the right to rights”.
Without forgetting Bolsonaro
Without quoting him directly, he left a fresh critique of Bolsonaro, who this week vetoed a law passed in Congress banning “hostile architecture,” which places various obstructions on the streets that prevent the occupation of public spaces .
Lula regretted that this trend has intensified in Sao Paulo, where an estimated 40,000 people are homeless and living on the streets.
“They put stones under the bridges because they don’t want the poorest to have even the right to sleep under a bridge,” criticized the president-elect, who said he felt “pain” at this “absolute lack of it.” love and understanding ».
President-elect of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hugs a young garbage collector during the Christmas celebration of garbage collectors and street people in Sao Paulo, Brazil today. EFE/Isaac Fontana
He also stated that in his first days in government he intended to visit these people in Sao Paulo with his ministers so that his staff “understand” that the poor are the “centre” of “all” public policies about the US will be in the next few years, four years.
“The poorest, the ones on the street, have no way of reaching the government,” so “they don’t have to go to the President because the President will go to them with ‘all his ministers’ to ‘talk and find a way out ” for this situation, he explained.
In fact, he entrusted the task of organizing this visit to Julio Lancellotti, a Catholic priest who was present at the event and who is a symbol of collaboration and help to the homeless population in the city of Sao Paulo and in whose name the house was baptized .-Law against “hostile architecture” rejected by Bolsonaro.
On the streets of Brazil
According to official figures, Brazil recycles only 4% of its waste, mainly through cooperatives formed by those dedicated to its collection, 70% of whom are women and mostly work in total informality.
Statistics also show that nearly a million people in the country are engaged in this occupation, earning an average monthly income of about 1,000 reais (about US$210), which is 90% of the minimum wage.
Also, according to official figures, many of these workers are among the 300,000 people living on the streets, who in turn make up about 10% of the 215 million Brazilians living in extreme poverty.
The shed Lula visited this Thursday hosted a meeting this week that brought together garbage collectors from across the country and was attended by delegates from similar cooperatives from Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Panama.