The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, referred on Monday to the coup attacks of January 8 as a «revolt of the rich» who could not bear to lose the elections and criticized that during these years, with the end of the governments of the Workers’ Party (PT), they have been governing for a «small minority».
«What happened in the Planalto Palace, in the Alvorada and in the Supreme Court was a revolt of the rich who lost the elections. We cannot take it as a joke because one day the people may get tired of being poor and will make things change in this country,» he said during the inauguration of Aloizio Mercadante as the new president of the federal development bank, BNDES.
«I won the elections precisely for the changes that have not been made. This country cannot continue to govern for a small minority,» Lula said during the ceremony held at the BNDES headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.
Lula took advantage of his speech to regret the «very serious» smear campaign to which the BNDES was subjected during the last electoral period, in relation to the existence of a «black box» that would contain information on the money that the bank delivered to countries friendly to the PT governments.
«Narratives, even if they are lies, are worth more than truths often told. In the last four years, we have lived through a process of crazy lies,» said Lula, who stressed that the funds were not given to governments but to Brazilian companies for the construction of infrastructure and services.
Regarding the debts contracted by other states with the BNDES, Lula was convinced that they will pay «because they are all countries that are friends of Brazil» and recalled that if they stopped collecting loans from countries like Cuba or Venezuela it was a consequence of the rupture of diplomatic relations imposed by Jair Bolsonaro.
Finally, among criticisms of the Central Bank, Lula pointed out that «the BNDES must prioritize the financing of micro and small companies so that Brazil can «make a leap in quality» in production and economic growth in the country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
