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‘Academy is not a place to do politics,’ says candidate for the presidency of the ABL

Current secretary general, journalist Merval Pereira may assume the presidency of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL), succeeding poet Marco Lucchesi. The election is scheduled for this Thursday (2) at 4 pm, but it is seen as protocol, since the ticket is unique and the process for choosing the board is consensual.

“Only if there is a shower of blank votes”, joked Merval with the CNN in an exclusive interview recorded on election eve. The potential future president of Academervalmia also foresees taking advantage of the new immortals, with shows by Gilberto Gil and theatrical actions by Fernanda Montenegro.

Even though he maintains that the ABL ‘is not a place for politics’, Merval has been speaking in defense of science and culture.

“The Academy is not a place to do politics. We only express ourselves when the facts demand it. When there is an attempt at censorship, for example, we always speak up. When there is an attempt to raise the book tax, we take part in it in opposition. So the academy does not make party politics, but defends principles and values ​​that integrate Brazilian culture. So we will always be acting in defense of Brazilian culture”, he said.

The switch amid the Covid-19 pandemic will see the new president inherit a renewed GLA. Four new occupants to seats at the Academy have been elected in recent weeks, replacing others who left in the midst of the pandemic. This is the case of singer Gilberto Gil, actress Fernanda Montenegro, doctor Paulo Niemeyer Filho and jurist José Paulo Cavalcanti.

If elected, Merval Pereira’s intention is to take advantage of the new talents of the immortals in the works of the ABL.

“We already have Cacá Diegues who makes the Academy’s film club, which we’re going to resume now, we’re going to have Fernanda Montenegro who’s going to do some theater at the Academy, we’re planning that. Gilberto Gil also intends to help, playing shows. And we have work in progress, [como] the dictionary of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. And next year the ABL celebrates 125 years, we will have a schedule to commemorate and remember the importance of the Academy, we should launch a book, we have several photographic studies by academics that we will accelerate, we are microfilming all the documents of the academia, so we have very strong projects to make up for these two years we almost had to do online,” he told CNN.

Merval also said that the social area will be a priority throughout his term, if he wins the election.

“In times we live, like this, the pandemic, and also [em] troubled moments in the life of the country, we sometimes assume positions more tending to put the social at the front of our performance, because the Academy’s social work is a very important and relevant work, taking reading and books to needy communities, to the Indians. . […] This performance will certainly be a keynote of my administration”, he said.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, journalist and political commentator, Merval Pereira has been immortal at ABL since September 2011. Eighth occupant of chair number 31, he received the Esso Prize in 1979 for his series of reports “A Segundo Guerra, Succession of Geisel”, published in the Jornal de Brasília. The series became a book of the same name.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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