BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he was scrapping plans to launch a new social welfare program called Renda Brasil and will keep the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program begun by previous leftist governments.
The rebranded welfare proposal was aimed at boosting popular support needed for a re-election bid in 2022, but Bolsonaro was unable to agree on funding with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who is battling to control Brazil’s budget deficit.
“It is forbidden to talk about Renda Brasil in my government until 2022. We will continue with Bolsa Familia and that’s it,” the president said in a video posted on his social media accounts.
Bolsonaro pledged never to cut welfare payments for retirees or disabled people, a measure proposed by Guedes’ team as a way of funding the new Renda Brasil program.
Bolsa Familia, the successful flagship safety-net program of former Workers Party President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will be kept in place for now, Bolsonaro said.
Disagreement with Guedes on the funding of Renda Brasil meant that the plan floated by Bolsonaro was not included in the 2021 budget proposal sent to Congress last month.
Separate emergency payments made to supplement lost income of poor families and informal sector workers during the coronavirus pandemic have helped raise Bolsonaro’s popularity to its highest level since he took office last year, especially in the less developed northeast of Brazil, long a leftist stronghold.
Bolsonaro has extended the payments until the end of the year but had to cut them to 300 reais a month from 600 reais due to fiscal concerns raised by Guedes.
The president had hoped to roll out Renda Brasil as a way of maintaining support to those currently receiving the emergency pandemic payments.
But Congress was expected to back Guedes in stopping Bolsonaro from spending on new social programs.
“Bolsonaro realized that it would be difficult to find fiscal resources for Renda Brasil and it would be hard to get it approved,” said Congressman Marcelo Ramos of the Liberal Party.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Marcela Ayres, writing by Anthony Boadle)
