Brazilian elections
The Workers’ Party of Brazil (PT), which has been in office in Brazil since 2002 will now, thanks to the electoral victory of President Dilma Rousseff, carry on until at least 2018 (barring any unforeseen ‘incidents’). For the poorest sections, mainly in the North, this is indeed a good thing as even the imperialist promoting BBC have to admit that the PT government “deserves credit for helping to bring millions of people out of poverty” (analysis: Wyre Davies, BBC News, Rio de Janeiro, 27 October 2014).
In accepting the result, which was narrower than her previous result, President Rousseff thanked her political mentor and predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying: “I thank from the bottom of my heart our number one militant, President Lula.”
The campaign had seen many dirty tricks from the opposition led by Aecio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) but the hands of US imperialism were not easily discernable in these. That could change however as the problems are stacking up (or being created for) the PT government.
While The Workers’ party is likely to continue expanding poverty-relief programs, raising the minimum wage and maintaining near record levels of employment, as well as building stronger alliances in South America and among groups of emerging economies, such as Brics, the wealthy of Brazil who are the main supporters of the PSDB control the economy and will fight every step of the way.
For our part we applaud the victory of Dilma Rousseff and her Party and wish them strength in the hard decisions that lay ahead.