Suplicy interrupts Mercadante and charges basic income in PT program

Councilman Eduardo Suplicy (PT) this Tuesday (21) interrupted a speech by the president of the Perseu Abramo Foundation, Aloizio Mercadante, during the launch of the guidelines of the government plan of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in São Paulo, to demand the inclusion of the citizen’s income proposal in the document.

The event was held in a hotel with the presence of Lula, the pre-candidate for vice president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), the presidents of the parties that support the PT and campaign supporters, among unionists and members of social movements.

Basic income tips

After being quoted by Alckmin, who congratulated him on his 81st birthday today, Suplicy got up from the audience during the presentation and walked towards Mercadante to deliver his proposals.

Even speaking off the microphone, you can hear him complaining that his suggestions were not considered by the party. The meeting was broadcast live on the internet.

“The institution of basic income for citizens approved by all parties, sanctioned by President Lula and which has been in the PT program for many years, every year, was not considered. He has something with me,” he stated in reference to Mercadante, who laughed after the quote. Both were senators for the PT.

Suplicy also complained that he was not invited to discuss the matter with PT leaders and allied parties.

“I will continue to work hard for Lula and Alckmin to institute the basic income of citizenship while I am still alive”, he concluded, shouting. During his speech, he was applauded by Alckmin. Lula laughed at times during Suplicy’s intervention.

After Suplicy’s complaint, Mercadante thanked his party colleague for his intervention and said he was unable to follow up on the invitations to the meeting. “Just look at the size of the plenary, it wasn’t even my job,” he said.

Regarding the proposals, Mercadante said that they need to undergo a “deep debate” before entering the government program.

“It has a coordination of seven parties and you, my comrade Suplicy, who has been with the party for 42 years, will be treated with all deference, but with the same right as everyone else to present proposals, be heard and discussed. It will join the list of 51 proposals that we already have”, said Mercadante, who lived in the Senate with Suplicy during their respective terms in the 2000s.

“I could look more carefully,” says Mercadante

Mercadante even read an excerpt from the program’s guidelines to show that Suplicy’s proposal had been remembered. In the document, Bolsa Família is proposed as a program capable of enabling a transition to a “universal system and a basic income for citizens”.

“I could look more carefully. Not only is it mentioned how Your Excellency committed two serious injustices here, but I’m used to it, I was Your Excellency’s leader with the bench, I know that’s how it is”, Mercadante said to his former Senate companion.

In his speech after the episode, Lula praised Suplicy, recalling that he is recognized by the PT and society for his defense of fighting hunger, and stated that the councilor was correct in making the complaint.

“If Suplicy wasn’t Brazilian, if he was from another country, his selflessness, his dedication, in these 40 years, to wanting a basic income, he would have won the Nobel Prize about ten times”, said the former president. .

Lula also congratulated Mercadante and his team for having included the issue of basic income in the guidelines of the government plan. “God willing, we will implement it one day in the country,” she said.

Invasion

At the end of the event, a man invaded the place and addressed the ex-president screaming. He was quickly removed by security and did not interrupt Lula’s speech.

According to Mercadante, the man came in and “provoked, but it was ineffective”. “Then he withdrew and we asked legal counsel to accompany him to ensure that there was no aggression, nothing he could use. It was an incident that happened that only reinforces the need to be more careful with security”, said the PT.

*With information from Taina Falcão