A president with a criminal profile.

This Sunday, March 22, 2020, will be remembered as yet another dark chapter of Bolsonarism. In the midst of an imminent social tragedy, with the most vulnerable sectors of society agonizing over the uncertainty of what lies ahead. With informal workers, who represent 41% of the country's labor market, suffering since last week from a lack of capital inflow into their economies, with small and medium-sized business owners urgently needing a measure to halt payments for public services such as electricity, water, garbage collection, etc. Against this backdrop, Jair Bolsonaro published a Provisional Measure (MP) in the Official Gazette on Sunday evening (22) authorizing the suspension of employment contracts for up to four months. During this period, the employee ceases to work, and the employer does not pay wages. The company is obliged to offer online training courses to the worker and maintain benefits, such as health insurance. 

The provisional measure:

• The employer will not be required to pay wages during the contract suspension period, but "may grant the employee monthly compensatory aid" with an amount negotiated between the parties.
• In cases where the planned qualification program is not offered, payment of salary and social security contributions will be required, and the employer will be subject to penalties provided for in the legislation.
• The suspension of contracts will not depend on a collective agreement or convention, but may be done individually or collectively.
• The suspension of the contract will be recorded in the physical or electronic work booklet.
• Individual agreements between employers and employees will take precedence over labor laws during the validity period of the Provisional Measure to "guarantee the continuity of the employment relationship," provided that the Constitution is not violated.
• Benefits such as health insurance should be maintained.
• In addition to suspending employment contracts and wages, the Provisional Measure establishes the following measures to combat the effects of the new coronavirus:
• teleworking (remote work, such as working from home)
• A special system for compensating hours in the future in case of eventual interruption of the workday during a public calamity.
• Suspension of vacations for workers in the health sector and services considered essential.
• Advance notice of individual vacations, with the employee being notified up to 48 hours before the granting of collective vacations.
• Taking advantage of and anticipating holidays.
• Suspension of administrative requirements in occupational safety and health; directing workers towards training.
• postponement of the collection of the Severance Pay Guarantee Fund (FGTS).

Perhaps there are no precedents in the history of modern states for such an unpopular measure in times of crisis. Neither in times of war, nor in times of climate catastrophe, are there any measures in modern history analogous to the one the government implemented yesterday and which... It only harms the most disadvantaged Brazilian people.Perhaps we are unaware of what truly constitutes Bolsonaro's government. Perhaps we are facing a government so tied to the concentrated interests of capital in the country that it is impossible for it, even in an extreme situation, to distance itself from them in order to take a more humane and socially restrained measure.

This measure doesn't even qualify as intelligent for the sectors it intends to benefit. What will the markets do when the pandemic is over, if the workers, the mass of consumers in the country, don't have the money to buy their products?

The provisional measure also allows for the interruption of the workday during the period of public calamity and for hours not worked to be compensated for by workers in the future, a kind of reverse time bank. In other words, it condemns the worker to owe hours and hours of work to the employer for who knows how long.

This Monday, the 23rd, Bolsonaro announced that he will revoke the article of Provisional Measure (MP) 927 that authorizes the suspension of employment contracts for four months without payment of wages. The announcement was made on his Twitter (where else?).

A president who has yet to take concrete action to combat the pandemic, the economic recession, and the financial chaos, Bolsonaro continues to shamelessly expose his complete inability to engage in dialogue and build a pluralistic political front. Bolsonaro is incapable of understanding the essential value of plurality. We need a termination of the presidential contract.

“I think the crucial thing is that governments don’t let insolvent companies go bankrupt and lay off workers,” Vicky Redwood, an analyst at the British consultancy Capital Economics, told the BBC in London. “We need to strengthen social safety nets, support businesses, and provide incentives for them not to lay off workers,” said Maurice Obstfeld, professor of economics at the University of Berkeley and researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The United States government, led by Donald Trump, plans to implement measures such as suspending foreclosures and evictions until April, and injecting over $1 trillion into the economy to buy corporate debt and... Sending checks of up to US$1000 to the most vulnerable citizens to prevent a drop in consumption.
The United Kingdom is suspending mortgage payments for three months and also announcing social assistance plans, such as contributing to companies to guarantee the payment of workers' salaries. Argentina, with a state bankrupted by four years of neoliberal practices, announced increases in subsidies for poor people, pensioners, unemployed women, and pregnant women in vulnerable situations. Macron, an orthodox neoliberal, understood the need for an urgent debate on the importance of a public health system and a more active role for the state in people's social lives. Spain, Italy, El Salvador, and Venezuela are following the same path. Most countries are following the path of social assistance, as a fundamental role of the state, guaranteeing the right to a dignified life in crisis situations.

It is impossible to understand the ideological bias used to justify such an absurd and inhumane measure. 

We need to cancel President Jair Bolsonaro's contract for four months. There's no way to reverse this decision. This includes his contract, his ministers' contracts, his sons' contracts, and the contracts of all those who remain allied with the government and condone these measures. All those who have not yet commented on how the government will address the situation of the working class.

We urgently need to confiscate the assets and salaries of the federal cabinet for four months so that they, for once at least, walk alongside the people they claim to represent. It is impossible to remain silent in the face of this situation. The people have been deceived. It is time to wake up, to act, and to emerge from the crisis as other countries are doing, through a community effort, involving everyone without exception, and with greater participation from the historically most favored sectors with the strongest economic resources to weather the crisis. This is nothing that the world's capitalist powers haven't already understood. It's part of human common sense. Something that the Bolsonaro government has been demonstrating it lacks since beginning its term in 2019.