The new Brazilian President Lula, in Brasilia, January 2, 2023. EVARISTO SA / AFP
Barely twenty-four hours after taking office in the capital, Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has begun to implement his most important campaign promises.
The 77-year-old left-wing icon, in his third term – having led the country from 2003 to 2011 – is looking to quickly make a name for himself by opposing the government of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who left and missed out on the country induction of his rival on Sunday.
Through a decree published in the Official Gazette on Monday January 2nd, Lula has therefore taken measures to limit the use of weapons. It suspended the re-registration of firearms and ammunition for hunter-gatherers and marksmen (collectively known as the CAC) for two months. This category has tripled its arsenal in Bolsonaro’s four-year tenure to reach one million registered weapons. The new president also set up a working group to propose new rules for the Statute of Disarmament, in force since 2003 and his first administration at the time, which aims to disarm civilians.
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“The Arms Control Decree is intended to end the irresponsible, constitutionally incompatible period of “anything goes”, insured on Twitter Flavio Dino, Minister of Justice and Public Security, who also planned a “general census of existing weapons in Brazil”.
“Buying a firearm is exceptional and not the same as buying tomatoes on the street corner,” explained Mr Dino.
The relaunch of the fund for the Amazon
Lula also signed a series of decrees aimed at strengthening the protection of the Amazon, whose average annual deforestation has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade. Notably, the new head of state set up a “permanent interministerial commission to prevent and combat deforestation” and decided to reactivate the Amazon Fund created in 2008 to collect donations intended for investments in the forest for its conservation. This had been frozen since 2019 due to disagreements over the use of the funds between Norway and Germany, the main donors, and the Bolsonaro government. These two countries have announced their intention to replenish it.
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Lula also revoked a decree authorizing mining on indigenous lands and in conservation areas.
Lula also halted the Bolsonaro-led privatization process of eight public companies, including oil company Petrobras and Brazil Post. He warned during the campaign that he does not want public groups to be privatised.
Help for the poorest families
On Sunday, in the midst of the inauguration ceremony, the new president also signed a decree expanding the popular Bolsa Familia scheme, which grants 600 reais, or around 111 euros, a month to the poorest families. It’s a campaign promise made after careful negotiations with Parliament in December 2022 to allow the program to escape the public spending ceiling.
Lula also signed an increase in the minimum wage from 1,212 reais to 1,320 reais (about 245 euros), a decision that had not yet been published in the Official Journal on Monday.
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About 125 million of the country’s 215 million Brazilians are food insecure and 30 million are hungry.
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The President also ordered the numerous decisions made by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, to be reviewed within thirty days to keep administration information and documents confidential. For a hundred years, the former head of state has repeatedly decreed the confidentiality of public documents to ban access to them, such as those concerning his vaccinations or his visits to former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
Lula eventually ordered the General Secretariat of the Presidency to work on creating a new program called “Pro-Catador” that would promote and improve the working conditions of garbage collectors.
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