Brazil gov't works to seek safe congressional support for pension reform

The government is holding a number of meetings this week to ensure it has the necessary support for approving the pension reform currently under deliberation in Congress, reported Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles. The discussion now, he says, aims to “make sure the margin is safe, so there are no doubts or surprises.”

“I hope there are reasons for Brazil to really celebrate the guarantee that every Brazilian will be able to retire. That's what at stake, not whether someone will retire two or three years later or earlier. What's being debated in reality is to what extant the retirement of all Brazilians will be ensured. The pension system may have its faults, may collapse, may become insolvent,” Meirelles argued.

According to the minister, insolvency is already a major issue in “several Brazilian states,” as well as other countries, “which had go as far as cutting down the pension of already retired people.”

Meirelles spoke to the press after the delivery ceremony of the Victory Medal, held at the National Monument for the Dead in Second World War, at the Flamengo Park, southern Rio de Janeiro.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira