The Chamber of Deputies voted for an amendment to the Constitution, allowing the new government in particular to perpetuate the monthly allowance of 600 reais (110 euros) paid to the poorest families.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
Lula will only take office on the 1 er January 2023 but he has already obtained a major victory: the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil approved, Wednesday, December 21, an amendment to the Constitution which authorizes the future Lula government to go beyond the ceiling for spending to finance social programs. The text was approved by a very large majority, by 331 votes at 163.
It allows the Government of the President elected Luiz Lula Da Silva to allocate to social programs 145 billion reais (around 26 billion euros) above the legal ceiling of spending.
The authorization of these exceptional expenses aims above all to perpetuate the monthly allowance of 600 reais (110 euros) paid to the poorest families, an amount already in force since August, under the government of the President Leaving from the far right Jair Bolsonaro. Lula also undertook to pay the beneficiary families a premium of 150 monthly reais for each child under 7 years old.
Lula had an asset in her round during negotiations with the deputies: a judgment of a judge of the Supreme Court who decided on Sunday that the social minima could be financed by “extraordinary credits” without taking into account the cap of expenses. He could therefore have financed them even if the constitutional amendment had been rejected by parliamentarians.
aid for the purchase of drugs
The constitutional amendment had already been approved two weeks ago by the Senate, which must now analyze it again after the changes in certain articles. The senators had authorized these exceptional expenses for two years, a duration reduced to one year by the deputies.
Beyond social minima, authorization to exceed the ceiling of expenses will unlock funds for the program of popular pharmacies, with significant reductions for the purchase of drugs, and for the increase in minimum.
More than 33 million Brazilians suffer from hunger, and the purchasing power of the poorest has been strongly started by the COVID-19 crisis and by inflation.
“This constitutional amendment is an emergency for the country, after the damage caused by austerity under Bolsonaro,” the hemicycle of the left Fernanda Melchionna told the hemicycle.
Adriana Ventura, of the right -wing party Novo, has castigated a text which “induces the Brazilians in error”, and estimated that “the poor will pay the note with inflation” that can cause according to it increases public spending.
The team of the elected official of the left is trying to reassure the business circles which fear that the future government neglects budgetary rigor to finance its social programs.