Address by the President of the Republic, Michel Temer, during a tribute offered by the Brazilian Union of Biodiesel and Bioquerosene (Ubrabio), the Brazilian Biodiesel Producers Association (Aprobio) and the Biodiesel Joint Parliamentary Caucus - Brasília/DF
Brasilia-DF, 04 December 2018
I want to salute Evandro Gussi,
Salute Juan Diego, president of the Brazilian Biodiesel and Biokerosene Union, Ubrabio,
Alberto Borges de Souza, Chairman of the Board of the Brazilian Association of Biodiesel Producers. On whose behalf, of course, I want to salute all other representatives of the biodiesel sector.
I also want to salute Eliseu Padilha,
Edson Duarte,
My friends Arnaldo Jardim, Mauro Pereira,
and the ladies and gentlemen in attendance.
And, of course, I should begin by thanking you for the kindness of this tribute. And, in thanking you, I would like to reiterate, of course, my greetings to the Brazilian Biodiesel Union, the Producers' Association, Congressman Evandro Gussi, and all the friends present here.
And I want, of course, to say that all the speakers were very generous with me. But, as I listened to them, I thought: “Interesting... It's one thing to be known. It's another thing, once known, to be recognised”. And it is interesting that I have... we have had a long public life and, in this long public life, evidently, knowledge became more pronounced, especially when I came to the Presidency of the Republic.
But it is curious... I will record a fact here, if you will allow me to speak a bit more informally. But it's interesting that, when an administration nears its end, no one looks for you any more, do they? The cold coffee story is an absolute truth. In fact, some even say... Some people are surprised that in my office we still serve hot coffee and water, because some people say that lately they haven't even been served water.
Very well. I, thank God, besides saying that the coffee is still hot... - we're short for time, correct? But in these last few days, in this... last month, I have been pleasantly surprised by the honours we have all received, and that is why I have used the word recognition, because I realise that we have done the right thing for Brazil. It's actually interesting... A long time ago - I always mention that fact, don't I Padilha? We have the "Big Council", the Economic and Social Development Council, and in one of the first meetings, one of the participants said the following: “Look President Temer, enjoy your unpopularity and do everything Brazil needs”. And I did. That's the great reality, isn't it?
And it is interesting that... if you allow a brief account here. Evandro already did it, Juan Diego already did it, Alberto Borges did it, didn't they? It's interesting... I see that the feeling I have is that we brought Brazil to the 21st century. And until when we were to take over the presidency, I think Brazil was in the 20th century.
That's why I rejoice to have been called many times a reformist President, and a president who had the courage to make indispensable reforms for the country. And, when he did not achieve them, who put them on the political agenda of the country, didn't he? So, I say, as soon as we arrived, what happened, Evandro? We found that the deficit was at an extraordinary level, 179 billion reais, and we then proposed a so-called public spending ceiling, based on a frugal, trivial concept, that no one can spend more than he earns.
I'm in my house, and if in my house I make 10,000 and spend 20,000 every day, every month, it's clear that in a few months I'll have problems. Our house is Brazil. if I make, if I raise this much but spent 4, 5 times that, it is clear that Brazil is getting into debt and creating the most serious problems for its population. So it was starting from this triviality that we proposed to the National Congress to implement a public spending ceiling, and here I take advantage of the words of Evandro. I really enjoyed this story that you told about Dom Pedro II. Because in my head too, without any comparison in my head, too, democracy does not exist without Parliament. So if you want to live a democratic system, you have to make Parliament your partner. And I, who spent 24 years in the Brazilian Parliament, I always realised that Parliament - and I was three times president of the Chamber of Deputies - but Parliament was seen as a sort of appendage of the Executive Branch. And I say an appendix to the Executive Branch, and here I make a small aside... Because we have, in Brazil, a very marked idea of centralisation. It's interesting, it's actually the result of our history. When you go back to the colonial period, what do we have? We had hereditary captaincies, then general governments, didn't we? When the empire came, we had a unitary State. That is to say, our idea of centralisation around a federal core - a federal core, not a national core, is it not so? It always comes from all the way back to the colonial period. It has always been like this.
And it is interesting. I would like to say something to the ladies and gentlemen: our constitutional history reveals precisely that. You see, the first president, Deodoro da Fonseca, the Constitution of 1891... They were mentioned here. But how long did that [18]91 Constitution last? Until [19]30, because in 1930 we Brazilians, with our centralising vocation, started a centralisation, didn't we? And look, with various conflicts, from 18[91] to 1930, the most varied national conflicts...
When it comes to [19]30, we have the [19]34 Constitution, the [19]37 Constitution, but we operate in a more centralised system from [19]30 to [19]45. [19]45. Very well, we return to democracy, there comes a new Constitution, the Constitution of September 10, [19]46. And so, very well, democracy, but what happened from [19]46 to [19]64? The most varied institutional dramas, the most varied crises. And our centralising vocation said: “We will centralise everything again”. And we centralised it in 1964. [19]64, lasted until [19]88. When we arrived at [19]88: “Let's decentralise. Let's make a true Federation, let's make a democracy, let's get out of this more centralising and, perhaps, authoritarian system. Then it comes to the Constitution of [19]88.
And we managed to build a State that, in fact ... Here, all modesty aside, but I think that my administration, our administration, was able to give vitality, managed to give life to the Constitution of [19]88, because the Constitution of 88 requires dialogue as a prerequisite of government, a dialogue that begins between the Executive and the Parliament, doesn't it? And I established this dialogue because I'm going to tell you, my friends: it is not easy to get a constitutional amendment that says you will spend less, because our tendency is always to want to spend more, isn't it?
And I myself as a ruler would greatly enjoy spending at will, but what did I do? We self-restricted our government, and did so through dialogue, dialogue established by the constitutional wording. Congress approved this by a significant majority, and it was something... I'm going to take some time from you, but I'll take this opportunity to talk a little bit about our government, OK?
It was one thing, let's say, serious that we did, because when we found a deficit of 179 billion, we said: this is not solved from one year to the next, so we proposed an amendment that has a 20-year deadline to match what you raise with what you spend. But it can be reviewed in 10 years. OK, so what happened? From the very first moment, through dialogue with the National Congress, already in the first year... in 2016, when we picked up in May 2016, GDP was negative at 5.9%.
By the end of the year, negative GDP was already at minus 3.6%, and from then on, with the dialogue we had, by the end of 2016, the deficit was no longer 179. We managed to do everything and it was still possible to save about 20 billion reais. The following year, we said: we are going to establish a deficit for 2017, or rather 2018. We will establish a ceiling of 159 billion, Very well, we are reaching the end of the year with a smaller deficit, of about 139 billion, therefore, 20 billion less.
To confirm that 10 years from now we might be able to do the review, that we won't have to wait for 20 years, and we will have a country where what you earn is what you, or rather, what you spend is what you raise. But this, my friends, was the result of dialogue with the National Congress and dialogue with society. Because dialogue with society is what allowed us to do labour modernisation, which was expected for years and years in a row and could not be done. It was the dialogue with society, with the educational area, that allowed us to do upper secondary education reform, because I remember when I was chairman of the Chamber of Deputies in 1997, people were already talking about upper secondary education reform, and it was never done. When we arrived at the government, we managed to carry out upper secondary education reform... We must agree, as Evandro recalled, that is... State-Owned Enterprises such as Petrobras, Banco do Brasil... But especially Petrobras, which was a national pride, about 3, 4 years ago it was a sort of, if you allow me the strong word, it was almost a dirty word, right?
And today, Petrobras is once again recognised nationally and internationally because we have passed a law in the National Congress that disciplines the management of State-Owned Enterprises. Banco do Brasil, I will give you another example... I'm speaking more quickly so as not to tire you... To give another example, Banco do Brasil. When we arrived, the share was worth 15 reais. Today it is worth 45. Therefore, this public asset increased threefold in value. If it was worth 35 billion, it increased to 110 billion reais, this public asset. All this, as Evandro said, as all said, in an administration lasting less than 3 years, 2 years and 7 months.
Interesting... On the one hand, dialogue; on the other hand, the idea of responsibility, and responsibility on a social side, on the other side on the fiscal side. The fiscal side came through this issue I was just mentioning, regarding the public spending ceiling, But we did not abandon the social side; on the contrary, we improved things. We know that we have poor people in the country, so it is interesting... Bolsa Familia... And here I will make another aside. Every administration that arrives wants to destroy everything that the past administration did. I did not do that, the programmes that were useful I kept, and in addition to keeping them, I also strengthened them. So when we arrive, for example, at Bolsa Família, it is still a programme that has a certain assistance nature because, incredible as it may seem, it aims to provide food for people who live in extreme poverty.
It is absolute poverty... When we arrived, it had been two years since there was an increase in Bolsa Familia. We increased Bolsa Familia benefits once and later on gave a new increase above inflation, but we were convinced that it is not enough to have just Bolsa Família. It was necessary to make people have social inclusion, and Bolsa Família simply did not create social inclusion.
That is why we launched a programme called Progredir [To Progress], which consists simply of the following: we brought together entrepreneurs, bankers etc. and we asked them to hire children from Bolsa Família beneficiaries, and now, various companies have hired over 200,000 young people making true social inclusion. It's the so-called social responsibility.
Look, something else on the topic of social responsibility, we open through the MDS [Ministry of Social Development] at a given moment, a credit line of 3 billion reais to provide loans up to 15,000 reais, for people who earn up to 400 reais. Do you know what happened to those 3 billion? It generated loans that reached 1 million, 200 thousand people, and was quickly exhausted. It's a hairdresser, a popcorn cart, a little food stand, right?
When that was over, I said: we will open another credit line of 4 billion reais, and we opened this credit line. My friends, we opened this credit line that is now reaching almost 2 and a half million people who are getting these credits... So the recovery of the labour market, and when I say the labour market, I mean those who did not work and started working. And in this I include two categories, those who have a formal contract... and you see that this year alone we had, we are getting to more than 850,000, 900,000 formal jobs.
But there were almost 1 million, 800 thousand job posts. The job posts are the ones I am mentioning. You gave people with small loans the chance to settle with a certain activity. Retail grew, supermarkets grew... And it was not without reason, that, a while ago... I was here speaking of homages, the... In the national association of homes, of... construction materials. They paid me a great tribute in São Paulo, more than 1,500 people gathered, and they said: “Look, we've grown 4% in the first year, now we're growing 4%, and we're growing”. And it was not without reason that recently the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets also paid extraordinary homage to what we did for the supermarkets. I allowed, through the modernisation, for them to work Saturdays and Sundays. This means more jobs, because people take turns in their own jobs, and they have also grown significantly. See, for example, what happened in the automotive sector.
The automotive sector was melting, almost destroyed. Today the automotive sector grown by 45.2%. The automotive sector, cars, automobiles, and trucks. All this is the result of this outlook that we built in the country.
Now, to conclude - and I am already exaggerating a bit, but to finish -... The issue of biofuels, biodiesel, this extraordinary thing that has been – right, Evandro? –, has been the object... Just now, at the G20 in Buenos Aires, four Heads of State told me about this achievement we made here in Brazil. And it is not without reason that Edson Duarte is here, who is from the [Ministry of] Environment, because this also favours the environment, doesn't it? It was something very well thought of even in this sector.
In fact, one more case - I'll be done soon - another case. At one point I found that there were dormant accounts in the Workers Severance Indemnity Fund. Who was enjoying this money? The public power. I said: “My God, with families here, going through hardships, workers" - was that not so? – "and this money being enjoyed only by the public power? Let's release it." And I released money from dormant accounts, which injected R$ 44 billion in the economy.
Moreover, we said: "We are going to improve the yield of the Workers Severance Indemnity Fund". And we doubled the yield. And the doubling of that yields allows - as it did just six months ago - us to deliver 6 billion and 200 million. Half of the income stays in the bank, the other half is distributed to workers.
The Pis/Pasep, we must agree, when the Constitution of [19]88 arrived... The PIS is a contribution of workers from the private sector, and the Pasep of workers from the public sector. This stopped in 1988, on 5 October [19]88. Money, deposited there, when that money belongs to workers. We released it. Pis/Pasep injected more than R$ 20 billion in the market. So, these are apparently simple acts that brought a new face to Brazil.
But here I want to mention something: in all the places I go, I see extraordinary optimism with Brazil. In the international trips, [I see] interest in Brazil, in investing in our country, and enthusiasm. When I spoke to President Macri a while ago, back in Lima, he told me: “Temer, how did you manage to do the labour reform and this inflation?" We must agree, inflation, inflation fell from 10.28 to less than 4%; interest rates went from 14.25 to 6.5%. When I say that, it has a meaning for public debt. Because if the interest rate is at 14.25, the public debt increases enormously. If it's 6.50, the debt is lower, isn't it?
So we managed to do all this in this very brief period. And I'll say one thing: I feel that in Brazil we are a little pessimistic. Interestingly, we, instead of taking pride on ourselves and saying: “We are growing”... Brazil has extraordinary potential. We are the granary that feeds the world, in the agricultural sector, in the agribusiness sector. The barn that feeds the world!
Just a few days ago, at a BRICS meeting before the G20, I, even at the request of Padilha and Turra - was it not so? –, I had the opportunity to talk a little bit with President Xi Jinping of China, and they had a swine fever outbreak. I said: “Mr. President, we want to increase our pork export quotas for China”. He had it written down immediately, and will look into it. So we can feed the world, and we can't be pessimistic, because pessimism brings bad energy, doesn't it? Optimism brings, carries good energies.
So, I'm getting more optimistic. By the way, when I’m paid homage of this nature, of course I say: “Wow, it was worth it, it was worth doing what we did”. Because I leave the government, in a month, with my soul comforted. I leave it excited. Filled with courage, an expression I often say, which comes from anima, that is to say, it comes from the soul, doesn't it? I go out with an enraptured, enthusiastic soul.
And that is why I want to tell the ladies and gentleman that, even though you work from eight to ten, 11 at night every day, moments like these are extremely rewarding. And look, it was not easy. First, the political opposition that was made to my government. It was fierce, it was no joke. But I ignored it, we ignored it. Then the moral opposition, which, when they realised... the attempt to overthrow the government. You all accompanied it. The attempt was cruel, fierce.
Incidentally, someone told me today, dear Juan, dear Alberto, dear Evandro, that a president has never been so attacked, although every president is, but as attacked, as vilified, as our administration. But we resisted. And we are ending the government, thank God, victorious. And victorious especially for the support that you give.
That is why I am going to end and instead of asking for applause, I will applaud the ladies and gentlemen who are building our country.
Thank you very much.