Temer's measures fuel chaos.

Michel Temer's package to combat the fuel crisis is ineffective and generates more insecurity in Brazil. The decrees and seven provisional measures presented, which will be analyzed by the National Congress this month, do not address the root cause of the problem: Petrobras' current pricing policy.

It is difficult to guarantee that the provisional measures will be approved in the Plenary, given that they interfere with the federal pact and strongly affect sectors of the economy at this time of unprecedented crisis in the country. The revocation of incentives for the chemical industry, for example, will generate job losses in a strategic sector that employs 2 million workers, with 60 in the ABC Paulista region alone and 14 in the Cubatão Petrochemical Complex.

After demonstrating incompetence in the face of the crisis that generated enormous economic and social losses for Brazil, the illegitimate president is once again making a mistake by predicting cuts in essential ministries to compensate for the reduction in the price of diesel and to finalize the agreement with the truck drivers.

MP 839/18 is a succession of absurdities. The PCdoB caucus presented 21 suppressive amendments to try to prevent this further dismantling. The proposal cuts at least R$ 2,3 billion from social, security, and infrastructure areas. Of this amount, R$ 820 million were removed from Science and Technology; R$ 179,6 million from Health; R$ 378 million from Transportation; and R$ 150 million from resources under the supervision of the Student Financing Fund for Higher Education (FIES). In Social Security, there will be R$ 225 million less.

Temer's solution was the worst possible way out and will fuel a crisis that could return on a larger scale, mobilizing society in a widespread manner. The decision to subsidize Petrobras and maintain the company's pricing policy is misguided and will only worsen an already serious situation.

Brazilians don't earn salaries in dollars. Brazil is an oil-producing country, with refining and fuel production capacity that isn't even being fully utilized. In fact, we've gone from being exporters to importing this fundamental economic input. Dollarizing prices makes no sense, as it severely impacts citizens' lives, because we produce a large portion of the gasoline we consume.

Petrobras cannot serve only its shareholders on the New York Stock Exchange. The state-owned company must be an instrument of national development and serve the interests of the country and the Brazilian people. Five or ten years ago, families could afford the prices of gasoline, ethanol, cooking gas, and diesel. It is unreasonable to increase people's cost of living amidst this growing unemployment.

It is therefore essential to review the pricing policy of the state-owned oil company, which has the sole objective of generating exorbitant profits for large investors and rentiers, causing incalculable losses for the Brazilian population. The PCdoB will fight to reverse this situation. Fuel price formation must take into account the factors of production in Brazil and not exchange rate fluctuations, which ultimately generated this national chaos.