A government of reversals: in nine days, Bolsonaro backtracks six times.
In nine days, Jair Bolsonaro's government has already backtracked on six proposed changes; the most recent reversal relates to changes in the evaluation criteria for textbooks, which allowed content without references, spelling errors, and censored the promotion of women and the racial and cultural diversity of the country; Bolsonaro has also already backed down on the implementation of a US military base in Brazil, the review of the agreement between Boeing and Embraer, and, more recently, the halting of land reform processes.
William De Lucca, 247 – To deny, to back down, to give up, to change one's mind. These seem to be some of the verbs that will likely accompany President Jair Bolsonaro's (PSL) government during his term, judging from the beginning of his administration. In nine days, Bolsonaro and his team have already backtracked on six proposals, some of them even causing public embarrassment.
The most recent reversal was related to change in the evaluation criteria for textbooks. The requirement that the works have bibliographic references and items that prevented advertising and errors in revision and printing had been removed from a call for new books, published this Wednesday (9), but pressure made the withdrawal come quickly. At the end of the afternoon, the Ministry of Education published a note suspending the call for proposals.
Another about-face made by the army captain was in relation to land reform.One day after it was reported that the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) had instructed its superintendencies to halt land expropriation or acquisition processes indefinitely, the government suspended the directive. This Wednesday, in a new memorandum, the president of Incra reversed the Bolsonaro administration's position.
Economic setbacks
The new president of Caixa Econômica Federal, Pedro Guimarães, was another who revised his speech a day after saying he would raise interest rates on mortgage loans for the middle class, on Monday (7). In a new interview, Pedro said that the lines targeted at this segment of society will follow the levels practiced in the rest of the market..
The biggest embarrassment happened in the first days of the government. In an interview, Bolsonaro said he had signed a decree that increased the IOF tax....to offset the increased spending on renewing tax incentives for the North and Northeast regions. Hours later, this was denied by the Secretary of Revenue, Marcos Cintra, who denied that the government would raise the IOF (Tax on Financial Operations). The Chief of Staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, confirmed that the president had "been mistaken" in speaking of an increase in the IOF.
Foreign policy
In foreign relations, Bolsonaro has also shown signs of changing his mind. In addition to... to remove from the agenda the relocation of the Brazilian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.largely due to pressure from the Arab world, The president also abandoned plans to host a US military base in the country..
He also changed his position regarding the review of the agreement between Embraer and Boeing, announced in the early days of his government. Ministers denied the possibility of interrupting the agreement, from which a new commercial aviation company worth more than US$ 5 billion could emerge.