Address by the President of the Republic, Michel Temer, during the ceremony to deliver new vehicles for the Unified Social Assistance System - Planalto Place

Planalto Palace, 6 November 2018

I would like to salute all the friends, ministers, senators, deputies, mayors, deputy mayors, and all those who are giving us the honour of attending this very significant event.

Beltrame was able, in fact, to recount everything that was done in the social assistance area. It is interesting... Every time, in my administration, in our administration, that I realise what we are doing, I say: "interesting, we did a lot in a very short time". Because it's a two-and-a-half year administration, not even that yet, so it's not a four-year or eight-year administration. But I think we have revolutionised a number of areas, including the creation of special systems.

When Beltrame speaks of SUAS, the Unified Social Assistance System - we recently created the SUSP, the Unified Public Security System - we are creating uniformity, aren't we? We are standardising government actions at the federal level. But with a very strong conviction, Padilha and Beltrame: the idea that we need to strengthen Brazilian municipalities and Brazilian states. I always say that the Federal Government will be strong if the municipalities and states are also strong. Economically, socially, politically strong.

And it's interesting how, sometimes, when you turn your eyes to things that are apparently of little relevance... But I am from the countryside of São Paulo and I know what it means - by the way, I will check later if my city was covered, OK? - but I know what the arrival of one of these buses that I have just seen means. It is a very modern bus, with things that I have only seen, I confess, in Europe and the United States for persons with disabilities. There is a special mechanism for welcoming the elderly and persons with disabilities. This has an extraordinary significance in all Brazilian municipalities. Therefore, it is a major advance for this Unified Social Assistance System. Therefore, these are means to allow the people of municipalities to better perform their activities, the municipal authorities.

So I want to say that right now we're delivering about 500 vehicles - is it not so, Beltrame? - 500 vehicles, and he has already...  You saw that he, like Osmar Terra, in a very recent past, did he not? When you took care of the Bolsa Família issue... Allow me to make an aside here.

Interestingly, Bolsa Família is no longer used for electoral purposes. You see that, in fact, over time, thousands of beneficiaries have been excluded. Because these were people who had cars, they were city councillors in the countryside, people who made money, and therefore did not need the Bolsa Familia benefit. And there was a huge queue, was there not, Osmar, Beltrame? An immense queue in Bolsa Família that has been cleared and cleared precisely in our administration.

And in addition to it having been cleared - here's another social assistance topic that Beltrame pointed out - we gave, after two and a half years without any increases in Bolsa Família benefits... We, who, at the beginning of the government, according to those who cast bad omens... Those who said, "Oh, will Temer end Bolsa Família?". We have offered two increases above inflation, haven't we? And this, and it did... It seems little, but when you give an increase to 14 million families, Edvaldo Brito, you can imagine what this means for small grocer's, the so-called vendas we have in the countryside of the South, Southeast, Midwest, Northeast, North... It means a contribution to the economy of those localities, doesn't it?

Now, interestingly, when we took office, initially with Osmar Terra and then with Beltrame, already with Beltrame, since then, we verified that true social inclusion was not achieved only through maintaining Bolsa Família. It is necessary to make people progress, that is, to help people have an activity that allows them to be inserted in the social fabric. Social inclusion is done through mechanisms that allow the insertion of those, especially the children of Bolsa Família beneficiaries, in the job market. And so the Progredir [To Progress] programme was launched, which aims precisely... Working with businessmen from the most varied sectors, It aims precisely to hire the children of beneficiary families. And today there are more than 220, 230 thousand beneficiaries, children of Bolsa Família beneficiaries, who have entered [the job market], and therefore are progressing. So, we are making true social inclusion.

On the other hand, I want to say that we take measures, interestingly, that are simple measures, aren't they? That would have been measurable, verifiable, in previous administrations, but were not taken. And they will be. I ask the press to please record that I just used a mesoclisis [insertion of a clitic pronoun inside a verb in Portuguese]. This story of me using the mesoclisis has made people understand what proclisis, enclisis, and mesoclisis is, hasn't it? From time to time they criticise me for it.

But it is interesting... When we decided to release funds from dormant accounts. That is, 'dormant' means accounts that were only being used for the benefit of the State and not for the benefit of workers. This injected R$ 44 billion in the Brazilian economy, reaching around 25 million workers. Subsequently, we set out to release funds from the PIS/Pasep. Do you know when PIS/Pasep stopped receiving contributions? On 5 October 1988, when the system was modified. So the money was there in the public coffers, producing interest to the public coffers, without any advantage, either for private sector workers or for public sector workers. We released PIS/Pasep funds, so the money was there a long time ago, and we released it for everyone. We placed no age restrictions - there used to be an age restriction before. We released [the funds], and this meant more than R$ 20 billion were injected in the Brazilian economy.

We modified... You see, for a long time there were criticisms to the form of remuneration of the Worker Severance Indemnity Fund, on the grounds that it was inadequate remuneration. We reformulated this equation, we paid more, let's say, dignified remuneration to the Indemnity Fund. And with this, we have been able to release this year - you see how important this is - in this year, as of July, 6 billion, 200 million to all Brazilian workers. And those 6 billion and 200 million remained in the Indemnity Fund.

So, I'm saying this because the topic here is social assistance, so well conducted by Beltrame, by Osmar Terra, by all those who dedicated themselves to this activity. Especially when I speak of the municipalities, it is because we have to encourage more and more the federative principle. Enough of this story of concentrating everything in the hands of the federal government. On the contrary; we need to decentralise. And what we did, over that time, was exactly decentralising activities, as Beltrame mentioned.

I must also mention that, for a long time, there was talk of a state debt renegotiation. Who dared, so to speak, to renegotiate the debt of the states? It was our administration. We, in 2017, no, still in 2016, 2016, we met with the governors and said: "Look, you are not going to pay any of the debt you owe to the federal government for 6 months". This meant an economic contribution to the states that ranged from R$ 2 to R$ 3 billion in that semester. And when we resumed the payments, we did it with 5.25, then 10.50, then 15.75 etc. It was little by little. Based on what? On this idea that it is not just the Union that exists. There are states and municipalities.

But the good news I want to give, too, by taking advantage of this extraordinary initiative by Beltrame... I want to say that I will do my best, Beltrame... Now it's 500. You've promised 500 or a thousand more next year, something like that. The deputies, correct? It will depend on the deputies and senators, but I want to say that, as far as I can, I want to see if I can reconcile the values that have remained.

You know that this year, we had a ceiling of 159 billion, and under this ceiling of 159 billion, we always made the budget with an emphasis on education and healthcare. Always increasing amounts for education and healthcare. I say this because we were often told that the Spending Ceiling PEC [Proposed Constitutional Amendment] was the PEC of Death, which would end education, healthcare, tourism, transparency - our ministers are here. And, on the contrary, we have always increased these funds.

So, this year, the deficit was estimated at 159 billion, and it is possible that some 20 billion will remain. That is, we had such achievements that, despite having done so much for the country, so many investments, Melles, that, in fact, it is possible that the deficit does not reach the ceiling imposed on our administration. And that's why I'm calling [the Ministries of] Planning, Finance, to say, "Let's get a few more million there and we'll dedicate to those buses there, maybe we'll get 500 or 600 more, right?”

And look, ladies and gentlemen, my friends, we did all this with a lot of tranquillity, although you know how we were bombarded over these two years. Bombarded with, if I'm allowed the strong words, the most indecent plots that could be devised in the country. The bombardment was enormous, but our government was not intimidated. On the contrary, our government has persisted, hasn't it? And by persisting, we managed to do what we did with an extraordinarily cohesive team throughout the entire period. There is no disagreement between the staff, they all worked together, didn't they? And, interestingly, Beltrame said "Look, there are 50 more days ahead". I made a calculation here, Beltrame, it means we have, as we do not work month to month or day to day, we work hour to hour, we have 1,200 hours ahead. We will work 1,200 hours for the benefit of Brazil.