Does Serra want the presidency?

247 - José Serra is Brazilian and never gives up. In 2014, once again, he intends to realize his great dream, which is to become President of the Republic. This is the prediction of columnist Ilimar Franco, from the newspaper O Globo.

Farewell to Illusions - ILIMAR FRANCO

Despite his statements, José Serra is a candidate for President. Allies say he is maneuvering to get Senator Aécio Neves (PSDB-MG) to drop out of the presidential race. He is threatening to leave the PSDB party for this purpose. And he may join the Democratic Mobilization party with this expectation, betting that, by gaining momentum in the early polls, Aécio will withdraw.

Also check out the manifesto from the PSDB party against the PT, read at a PPS event:

Unity for democracy

1. It's good to be here with you all, at a meeting of the democratic left. I feel like I'm among friends. I began my political journey in the old Popular Action (AP), in the student movement. We worked together with the PCB. These are rivers that converge again.

2. We had differences and many points of convergence. Among them was a generous dedication to the future of our country, of its people, in the direction of democracy and social justice. The former PCB (Brazilian Communist Party) was one of the first political forces on the left that began to understand the strategic character and universal value of democracy. This unites us. I have always rejected, and will continue to reject, the idea that it is necessary to limit democracy in order to expand social rights.

3. It's quite the opposite. Only the expansion and consolidation of political democracy can ensure permanent social progress and achievements. All experiences that proposed otherwise ended in authoritarian distortions and economic and social losses for the people.

4. Here is the challenge that faces us today: to defend democratic progress as the only way to move forward quickly and safely in the economy and in the fight to reduce inequalities.

5. Today, the Brazilian state has been captured by a political group, organized within the PT and its fringes, that does not hesitate and will not hesitate to weaken democracy in order to perpetuate itself in power. They do not accept the independence of the branches of government, they do not accept a free press, they do not accept the possibility of alternation in power. They have rehabilitated and strengthened everything that was most backward and bad in Brazilian politics. Today, they express, as never before, the vanguard of backwardness.

6. This capture of the state is at the root of our economic difficulties, which are becoming clearer every day. The government's objective has ceased to be the general well-being and national construction, and has become exclusively the feeding of those in power. The state has been privatized as never before. Look at what happens, just to give one example, with the regulatory agencies, whose appointments are made within a veritable Persian market.

7. The Lula economic model was the legacy that the current government received from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his then-assistant, Dilma Rousseff. Who, incidentally, even in the presidency, continues to be an assistant to Lula. A model driven by consumption, mainly of imported goods, with low investment, lower-quality jobs, and a very high tax burden. Investment, besides being low, is poorly done. The list is, unfortunately, long. Look at how the Transnordestina railway, the São Francisco River diversion project, the Abreu e Lima refinery, the World Cup works, the modernization of ports, the federal highways throughout Brazil are dragging on… They managed to achieve the most incompetent highway concession ever recorded. And on top of that, they want to implement a bullet train, the most outlandish project in Brazilian history, costing 75 billion reais, all with public money. A project for which there is no demand, nor is there any serious priority to justify it. Meanwhile, cities like Rio, São Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, and many other capitals lack subway systems. The "Brazil cost" of our economy adds 25% to the prices of Brazilian products that compete with imports or vie for foreign markets.

8. Former President Lula deserved to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Three awards. First, for having broken the largest Brazilian company, a monopolist with high prices, dynamic demand, and large production reserves: Petrobras. Second, for having thrown away the effects of the greatest external boom the Brazilian economy has ever had, squandering dollars on consumption – to the detriment of domestic production and better-quality jobs – unnecessarily maintaining sky-high interest rates and stagnant infrastructure investments. The third award is impressive and shocking: Lula worked for about ten years (no more than that, it's true) as an industrial worker, became president of the Republic, and promoted the deindustrialization of the country. Today, thanks to the government of a former factory worker, the share of manufacturing in GDP has returned to the level of 1947!

9. The result is paralysis. The government has no thought process or strategic plan; its only project is electoral. The other day the press reported that the authorities calculated that a GDP growth of 2% would be enough to re-elect the president, and that this is sufficient for them.

10. They care little if low growth and deindustrialization poison and condemn the national development project in the medium and long term. Their only concern is the final outcome, the electoral one. Mediocrity is enough for them, if that's what keeps them in power. To hell with the country.

11. The legacy of Lula's government, with Dilma as a supporting player, was quite adverse for Dilma's government. Economic imbalances, perversion of the state apparatus like never before in this country, ministers being dismissed on suspicion of wrongdoing, universal social policies, such as education and health, "advancing" backward or moving forward. In practice, what has the current Dilma government's term been like? Two years of perplexity in the face of the inherited legacy, two years of election campaigning! Anything but truly governing, anticipating events, and taking care of our country.

12. But let's be clear: Dilma's government's legacy for the next one will be even worse, not only because of what she inherited but also because of what she failed to resolve. Her legacy, which would be even more adverse if she were re-elected, will be on par with that left by the last military government, that passed from the Sarney government to Collor's and from Collor to Itamar. There wouldn't be the same hyperinflation, but the great fiscal, economic, and institutional damage would be, and perhaps worst of all, damage to the soul and body of the nation.

13. Today we are gathered here because together we seek an alternative. It is clear. To defend democracy tooth and nail against authoritarian tendencies. To defend the economy against the colonized mindset that we must conform to the role of "breadbasket of the world," a role to which we seem to have been condemned since colonial times.

There's little doubt about what needs to be done for the country now. The biggest challenge lies in bringing together the political, economic, and social forces essential for this. I am too rational to allow negative passions from the past to dictate my future actions. And these will be dedicated to uniting forces, with one or more candidacies, to promote the major reforms the country requires. I think that's why we're here, and you can count on me in this journey.