Manuela: The country doesn't tax the rich.

Red Portal - In an interview with the Rio Grande do Sul newspaper Zero Hora, the pre-candidate for President of the Republic, Manuela D'Ávila, reaffirmed her defense of the state's role in the resumption of development. "I believe that the State has a central role in the resumption of growth in the Brazilian economy. I have already challenged liberals to show which nation has developed with the State dispensing with its role as driver of national development. I don't know of any," emphasized Manuela.

According to her, the solution to the crisis "lies in the State restoring its investment capacity" and in a State reform that allows private investment in Brazil "because investing in Brazil is considered a criminal activity."

Manuela advocated for a tax reform based on collecting taxes according to citizens' ability to pay, unlike the current system where the poorest pay the same as the richest.

"On one hand, ensuring that the State regains the capacity to invest. On the other, that the State is reformed to allow private investment. One of the paths lies in tax reform. Brazil charges a lot of tax from the poor and the middle class, but not from the rich. We are one of the few countries in the world with a system that basically does not tax large inheritances, which would represent a relief for the States. It also does not tax large fortunes, nor luxury items. We tax rice and beans, but not luxury consumption. The people are right to say that they pay a lot of tax and that multimillionaires do not. Furthermore, Brazil does not combat tax evasion," he argued.

Furthermore, Manuela stated that the restoration of the State's investment capacity must occur across all three levels of government: the Federal Government, States, and Municipalities.

"One of Brazil's inequalities lies in the concentration of resources in the federal government. They ignored the idea that states and municipalities are important. With Temer's proposed fiscal recovery plan, there's no need for a governor. A manager can take over. The debate is much deeper. It's necessary to decentralize resources, which means seeing power in a different way. This system facilitates the perpetuation of clans," he emphasized.

Speaking of Michel Temer, in celebrating his two years in office after the 2016 coup, he states that he regrets not having been able to approve his proposed pension reform. In the government's plan, increasing the worker's contribution period was one of the solutions to the pension deficit.

According to Manuela, it's necessary to know the true size of the deficit, because "there are differing views on the size and calculation of the deficit."

"The pension reform cannot punish Brazilians who have worked their entire lives. I believe that Brazil needs to move towards a generational pact in another direction, in the debate about the world of work," argued the pre-candidate.

For her, the urgency lies not in pension reform, but in restoring Brazil's capacity for economic growth. "If the state starts collecting more revenue and the economy reacts, this issue loses its relevance in the face of an economy in crisis. It's a mistake to look at pensions in a fragmented way. A country with 14 million unemployed has serious problems to solve. We need to create an environment that facilitates investment, which involves reforming the state," she argued.

When asked whether tax breaks would be an alternative to revive the economy, Manuela stressed that the biggest mistake of the tax breaks was the lack of criteria for granting incentives, even for loans from BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), "because we did not demand clear conditions for doing things in return."

"It is necessary to have clarity about what the counterpart contributions are and their relevance to Brazil's development project. Therein lies one of the limitations of the BNDES's national champions policy: the lack of clarity regarding what those counterpart contributions are."

According to the communist candidate, despite the various successes of previous governments, industrial activity in Brazil continued to decline.

"One of the issues lies in the lack of clarity regarding the trade-offs. Another is macroeconomic policy. Even with the establishment of an industrial macroeconomic policy, there is a real interest rate that favors rent-seeking rather than investment in production. Interest rate policy undermines efforts in the industrial sector when it does not encourage investment in the productive sector," he argued.

Regarding women's participation in the elections, which so far only has four potential presidential candidates, Manuela pointed out that one of the factors contributing to this low representation is our political and electoral system, which does not provide quotas for women in office.

"As a rule, presidential candidates come from people who hold office. But there is another set of reasons that is just as important as the system. Women work much more than men, adding up their jobs, domestic activities, and childcare. That's 13 hours more per week. Consuming this time takes us away from the public sphere, and this has medium-term consequences. How will we get elected if someone has to pick up the child from daycare and that someone is always the woman? Therefore, policies like full-time schools are related to the possibility of women becoming more involved in the public sphere in general," she emphasized.