The "PIG's" request to Santa Claus: to control politics.

Journalist Ancelmo Góis conducted a poll among other columnists at the newspaper. The Globe To find out what they expect from 2014. Merval Pereira expects things to remain bad next year, but thinks they will get worse. Carlos Alberto Sardenberg, Míriam Leitão, and Zuenir Ventura are hoping for more protests – “vigorous protests,” says Sardenberg. Ricardo Noblat asked Santa Claus to give Brazilians discernment to choose the next president of the Republic. If he's going to give it, it's assumed it's because we don't have it yet.

The poll makes it clear what the most traditional vehicle of the old media is prepared to do in 2014. It's the same thing it did in 2013: ride on popular dissatisfaction to try to decisively influence the world of politics. To wear down those they dislike in order to give a boost to those they favor.

The media that was driven off the streets and had to mask the logos on its microphones wants to repeat what it has always done in presidential elections: enter the field and play the role of the opposition party.

Media corporations are organizing themselves to, once again, interfere in the election results because their business depends on it. Again, they're entering the fray to measure their strength. They're already used to going all-in. They're going to test, for the umpteenth time, the extent of their power over politics. They make news out of this and act in this way to bring politicians and parties to their knees, stigmatized, ashamed, and subservient. 

As Venício Lima taught us, a disgraced Presidency, Congress, and political parties are incapable of proposing decent media regulation, not even to guarantee freedom of expression, diversity of information sources, plurality of opinions, and a non-cartelized communications market.

In 2013, media corporations, once again, announced and guaranteed that the world was going to end. And wouldn't you know it, the world didn't end? When the June protests took to the streets, the price of tomatoes had skyrocketed. The 2012 GDP became known, and its growth had been close to zero. Reservoirs were well below normal, and "experts" recommended praying that there wouldn't be a blackout. The Amarildo case shattered the near-unanimity that existed in defense of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) project. 

It seemed the country was in dire straits, that a governance model was exhausted and crumbling. Everything suggested that Dilma's presidency had reached a dead end. But she did. She recovered her popularity, while her potential opponents fell in the polls and their disapproval ratings increased. 

The year ended better than it began, for the government and for the country. Inflation will close within the target. This should remain the case next year, no matter how much some analysts, using reasons that reason itself cannot comprehend, try to make us believe that the target limit is something outside the target range (perhaps dictionaries will give a new meaning to the word "limit" next year). There were no blackouts, and the thermal power plants were shut down earlier than expected. 

GDP growth in 2014 is expected to be higher than this year's. Education and healthcare will receive more resources and have been performing better according to research. Next year, Brazil will continue to have one of the largest primary surpluses in the world, even more so with the influx of new resources from pre-salt oil exploration and infrastructure concessions.

But the problems remain numerous. Some will be particularly difficult to solve next year. One is the threat of risk assessment agencies downgrading Brazil's rating. Another is the discrediting of public security policies in all states, but also affecting the Federal Government.

The third, and possibly the most explosive, would be the same as in 2013: a new wave of bus fare increases, which traditionally happens in the first half of each year. The defeat of the property tax increase in São Paulo, in court, removed from the map the only situation that was thought to be under control. The Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte axis is what most worries the Planalto Palace (the Brazilian presidential palace). If something goes wrong next year, the likely epicenter will be these three capitals, and it could spread to the others.

The 2013 protests were a perfect storm. Several unresolved issues, accumulated in the daily stress of citizens, transformed into revolt in the streets, mixing apples and oranges. Unpredictable, perfect storms, like the June protests, are also difficult to repeat. Difficult, but not impossible.

Even a small risk can cause great concern. The three most sensitive issues at the moment (international perception of the country's economy, public safety, and bus fares) make up the priority agenda for the first quarter of 2014, to be directly addressed by the Presidential Palace. The months of January to March 2014 will be more hectic than usual, at least in the Esplanade of Ministries.

The following quarter, from April to June, will be the most critical period. It will include the key dates for labor negotiations for various categories; the fierce battle of many interests to get on the agenda of the concentrated effort of Congress; the final period for finalizing presidential and state candidacies; and finally, of course, the FIFA World Cup.

Bring on 2014. Bring on more boldness from all governments and parties. Bring on mobilizations in favor of the poorest, with the poorest in the streets, with their social and popular organizations and their parties – so that the parties can open their mouths less and their ears more. May Brazilians show that the voice of the streets is not the one manufactured by the headlines of media corporations. May public opinion show, live and in color, that its true opinion is usually the opposite of the published opinion. May surprises come, for it is from them that change arises.

(*) Antonio Lassance is a political scientist.