Lula calls for more consistency within Workers' Party

Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said late this Monday (June 29) that the Workers' Party (PT) should work more consistently in Congress. In a meeting with 66 of the 76 party members in Congress, Lula urged them to “turn the page” on the fiscal adjustment and discuss proposals for growth.

“The president pointed out, and we agree, that it's time we turned the page on political speech,” said Humberto Costa, PT leader at the Senate. According to him, the meeting in Brasília helped align party members' speech on economic police and the post-fiscal adjustment scenario.

According to Costa, the former president stressed a need to promote the government's efforts, including the logistics investment program, the Minha Casa, Minha Vida affordable housing program, and others. “[You have to] leave the austerity talk behind and start supporting an agenda of employment growth and control over the economic situation of the country.”

José Guimarães, government leader at the Chamber of Deputies, said the meeting included a defense of the party and of President Dilma Rousseff's administration. “That was the meeting where President Dilma was most defended, that's what Lula most did during the meeting,” he remarked.

The party leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Sibá Machado, said joint actions will be intensified across party benches in Congress, as well as dialogue with social movements. “We'll prepare our bench to work on the [Congress] agenda in a more organized way and in closer dialogue with social movements, taking the agenda of the society to Congress.”

Translated by Mayra Borges