'Government is open to dialogue with the opposition'

Yara Aquino - Reporter for Agência Brasil

After the meeting of the government coordination of President Dilma Rousseff to assess yesterday's demonstrations, ministers spoke of maintaining dialogue with political sectors and social movements and seeking convergence of proposals and actions. Today's meeting (16) was attended by ministers and the vice-president, Michel Temer.

"I want to make it clear that the government is entirely open to dialogue and takes as its central stance dialogue with all social forces, regardless of whether these social forces support or oppose the government. It matters little whether they are political leaders who support the government or are in opposition. The government is open to dialogue with everyone," said the Minister of Justice, Eduardo Cardozo, in a press conference.

Cardozo said that the first response to the demonstrations is to listen to them. He reinforced the assessment that indignation against corruption was the strong demand of yesterday's protests. "The government is listening to the demonstrations. A democratic government listens to the voice of the streets, and it matters little whether the people in the streets applaud or boo the government. In listening, we need to capture this sentiment, and it seems very clear to us that it is deeply related to indignation over corruption," said Cardozo. He reaffirmed the government's commitment to fighting corruption.

The Minister of Justice made it clear that it is time to seek convergence to find alternatives in the fields of politics and economics. "We want to dialogue with all political forces so that we can find common ground. Honestly, I think that's the role a democratic government should play, acting firmly but with humility," he indicated.

As he said yesterday, Cardozo defended political reform, arguing that the Brazilians who took to the streets yesterday demonstrated dissatisfaction with the country's political system. "It seemed to me that there is discomfort among the population with our political system. I sense this when opposition leaders were prevented from speaking. The political system today does not allow Brazilians to feel represented," he assessed.

According to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Eduardo Braga, the protesters were primarily demanding a fight against corruption. "We understand the message from the streets in recent days. Nobody was demanding more social programs or saying that unemployment is killing our opportunities. They were in the streets saying they want a fight against corruption and to understand what the government is doing in the area of ​​economics."

He argued that the government has faced the effects of the economic crisis with "humility" and said that the adjustments made were due to the exhaustion of the possibility of maintaining tax breaks and subsidies. "Our capacity to subsidize this countercyclical effort has reached the limit of responsibility, and a government committed to seriousness cannot hide this limit. We now need to share the challenge with everyone, because we can no longer maintain these subsidies and boost employment with countercyclical actions as we have done since 2008."

In response to a question about how President Dilma received the demonstrations, Minister Eduardo Braga recalled that she was imprisoned during the military dictatorship and therefore holds strong democratic values. "The president's state of mind is that of a democrat who stands before her people to respond to challenges," he concluded.