Patrus: Pimentel's election is the rescue of libertarian Minas Gerais.

Minas Agency - The Minister of Agrarian Development, Patrus Ananias, classified the governor's administration as... Fernando Pimentel The minister described the achievements as "historic" because it included addressing demands such as the payment of the national minimum wage to teachers and the participation of social movements in government policies. He was the official speaker at the Minas Gerais Day Medal ceremony this Thursday (July 16th) in Mariana and, in his speech, highlighted the achievements throughout history.

“Your Excellency’s election, Governor Fernando Pimentel, is part of this process of change and achievements. It is the rescue of the libertarian Minas Gerais, often a minority. And which now becomes the majority in Your Excellency’s historic election to realize, here in Minas Gerais, the encounter of freedom and justice, which constitute the greatest marks of our struggle and our historical vocation,” he stated.

“Your Excellency’s first initiatives, such as the historic agreement with education workers and the tribute paid on Tiradentes Day to leaders of social movements, point in this direction. Your election is the rescue and affirmation of our generation. I am absolutely certain that we will revive innovative experiences in public management under the firm, enlightened, and committed leadership of Governor Fernando Pimentel,” added the minister, also paying tribute to the state’s teachers for “the recognition after so many struggles.”

The minister also defended the social advances achieved during the governments of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and president Dilma Rousseff. According to Patrus, the opposition to the Workers' Party governments "does not acknowledge notable progress" in this area, with the establishment of programs such as Bolsa Família, Fome Zero, and the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming.

He also defended constitutional rights questioned by “coup attempts.” “Critics are also unconcerned about the risks and challenges to which constitutional rights are exposed, in the face of judicial and legislative procedures that often disregard the constitutional guarantees relating to due process, such as the presumption of innocence and the right to defense, and also those relating to due legislative process. These risks cannot break, in momentary situations, the historical and civilizing achievements of the Brazilian people,” the minister emphasized. According to Patrus, the history of Brazil “witnesses the dispute between libertarian ideals and social justice and the obscurantist forces of coup attempts, authoritarianism, and exclusion.”

Recalling the military dictatorship in the country, Patrus highlighted the importance of the struggle to strengthen democracy. “The challenge facing the civic and democratic conscience of the country today, a challenge that primarily affects young people, is to mobilize ourselves to defend the achievements of the Constitution and the laws that have enabled these remarkable gains we have had in recent years. Among these achievements are democratic values ​​and procedures,” he stated.

"So that your generation, the young people present here, can be the generation of democracy, we cannot forget the horrors of the dictatorship and the violence. The heroic struggle of those who resisted the abuses led us to the reconquest of democracy, with the promulgation of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of October 5, 1988, the citizen's Constitution, in the words of Ulysses Guimarães, the president of the Constituent Assembly," he concluded.

The Minister of Agrarian Development concluded his speech by paying another tribute, this time to the former Archbishop of Mariana, Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida, who passed away in 1996, for his work in combating poverty and hunger.