Weak government, weak country

In recent weeks, a series of measures have profoundly affected the government: the return of the PIS/COFINS Provisional Measure, the Beaches Bill, the Abortion Bill, the Blouses Bill, fiscal balance, the eternal Petrobras clash, whether with dividends or management changes, among others. All of this has left the government on the defensive, unable to articulate. To make matters worse, from the outset, the current government has faced a serious communication problem.
Some of these legislative measures are traps that Congress has planted to wear down the Executive, which shows the character of the current members of Congress. But part of this crisis is the responsibility of the government itself, which is still failing in its political articulation and lacks a plan.
It is true that the tight results of the presidential elections and the current composition of Congress force the president to compromise with other parties in order to form a minimally secure base and maintain governability, making it difficult to pass legislative projects.

In any case, more is expected from this government and from the articulation skills of President Lula, who doesn't seem to have noticed the cultural change in national politics. The Brasília of Lula's first terms is not the same, and the way of negotiating has also changed. Whereas before negotiations were based on the distribution of ministries to form an allied base, today party loyalty is based on negotiating each project individually, regardless of the number of ministries the party has.
To improve political coordination, Lula must surround himself with good political coordinators who have the credibility, competence and autonomy to negotiate. From what we've seen so far, none of these three requirements are met by those responsible for dialog in Congress. As a result, every week is a new setback.
Churchill had an expression that said that the US always arrived at the right policy after testing all the others; today's Brazil gives us the idea that we keep testing all the other policies without knowing if we're going to arrive at the right one.
In the economic agenda, which had been bringing good news and credibility to the government, there was a bombardment of the Finance Minister, both by the financial market and by the allied base itself. This has meant that the policy of fiscal balance through increased tax collection no longer works. It will be necessary to embark on a cost-cutting agenda, an issue that the government has always tried to avoid, but which has become imperative.
This year's municipal elections bring an additional element to the diagnosis of the government's popular approval, which has been deteriorating in recent months. And the fact that the far right still has significant support among the population, even in the face of everything that has transpired in recent years, makes the need to find an appropriate political balance all the more dramatic.
The country's political agenda is being torn apart not only by the polarity of opinions, but by the change in the way politics is done. President Lula needs to put his years of experience to work, because those around him are not getting results. The government is faltering and this is making the country weak. And in today's world of wars and economic and social uncertainty, being seen and perceived as a weak country has serious consequences for social welfare and democracy.