In the middle of a political storm, the Brazilian president launches his pension reform

Jair Bolsonaro, who was discharged last Wednesday after 17 days of hospitalization for an abdominal operation, will present to Congress next Wednesday the final proposal for pension reform. The president opted for a minimum age of 62 for women and 65 for men, with a transition period of 12 years.

Currently, the law allows women to retire with 30 years of contributions and men to 35 years of age without limit. There are cases in which only 50-year-olds can already benefit from this benefit.

One of the most complex fronts is that of public service employees, who have a differentiated system, but mostly military, who contribute to less than half of all other workers, and their single daughters continue to receive the benefit after the death of their father's father. the armed forces.

No other details, such as the years of contribution required to obtain a partial or full pension benefit, have been disclosed.

The economy minister, Paulo Guedes, said last week that he hoped the reform, called for years by investors to clean up public deficit accounts, would save a trillion in a decade (about $ 270,000 million).

The Secretary of Pensions of the Ministry of Economy, Rogério Marinho, said that the government expects the Congress to approve "e breve" the project that will be presented to you this week.

"I do not want to proceed with pension reform, but we have to do it because otherwise Brazil would go bankrupt in 2022 or 2023," Bolsonaro said last week.

In Brazil, there are currently two types of retirement – with different benefit brackets – that are calculated based on years of contributions or for a combination of years of contribution with the worker's age.

The major pension funds – private sector and public officials – accumulated a deficit of 292,000 million reals ($ 79,940 million, this year's average change) in 2018, which corresponds to 4.25% of the GDP. In 2011, it accounted for 2.1% of GDP.

Bolsonaro in principle has a majority of parties from several parties to approve this constitutional reform, which requires a three-fifths majority of seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The unions launched the cry in the sky. "This reform is worse than that presented by the government of Michel Temer," complained the head of the United Centraide (CUT), Vagner Freitas, while Força Sindical argued that the worker must work ten years of more than now retirement at the initiative of Bolsonaro.

But the impetus with which the president came to power on January 1 has been compromised in recent weeks by allegations of dissent and corruption.

The last front was opened this week when its Minister of the Presidency's General Secretariat, Gustavo Bebianno, was involved in a supposedly launching of little-known Liberal Social Party (PSL, Bolsonaro party) candidates for the sole purpose. to: receive electoral funds.

Bebianno, who as president of the PSL was one of the key articulators of the Bolsonaro campaign, tried to downplay the crisis and said that he had spoken with the president several times before leaving the country. San Pablo Hospital where he had removed his bag. colostomy he wore since the attack with a dagger he had suffered last September.

But Carlos Bolsonaro, one of the president's three politically devoted sons (he is a Rio de Janeiro city councilor), issued a recording last week in which his father apparently refuses to speak to Bebianno. And then, he denied in a tweet the existence of these contacts. Bolsonaro himself gave his reason a little later, saying that Bebianno was "lying".

And the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, said the president was using his family instead of "leading a solution" to this crisis.

"Any party president can go through that, by turning it into a crisis in Plbadto Palace, I think a very big risk to a government that has to show leadership and unity, because it will have to important challenges, starting with pension reform, "Maia told GloboNews.

When asked if these situations could hinder the approval of the pension reform, Marinho replied: "We are working for retirement and Brazil can not stop."

Source: AFP and EFE

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