===================================================================== Lula Fires Salvo at Critics to Warn Reform in Brazil Will Take Time =====================================================================
Lula Fires Salvo at Critics to Warn Reform in Brazil Will Take Time. In four attempts over the last 14 years to win presidential elections, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was seen as too radical to govern Brazil. Now that he is in office, he is concerned at being seen as too conservative, reports the Financial Times.
Having run on a platform of far-reaching social and economic change, Lula da Silva has come under fire from critics on either extreme of the political arena. Austere economic policies including tough budget cuts and tight monetary policy, they say, are a continuation of the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, his social democratic predecessor.
In response, Lula da Silva has gone out of his way in recent weeks to justify economic austerity and explain that his plans for a more equitable society will take time. Behind the message is an attempt to manage enormous expectations and sustain his popularity.
Through strict budgetary and monetary policies, Lula is hoping to rebuild the trust of the foreign investors and bring them back to Brazil, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (Switzerland) writes. This would, at the same time, improve the country's risk assessment and lower interest rates.
Reuters adds that the end of annual Carnival celebrations this week will mark an important testing period for Lula da Silva.
His government has sought to encourage Brazilians to be patient by running television advertisements that explain a house is renovated not by destroying it, but by reconstructing it wall by wall. Analysts say this campaign aims to make it easier for him to undertake unpopular measures.
Vinod Thomas, the Brazil country director of the World Bank, which has thrown its weight and millions of dollars behind Lula's "Zero Hunger" program to feed the country's estimated 40 million poor, summed up the test Lula faces. "Brazil is carrying out one of the greatest experiments in history of pursuing a bold social program with fiscal responsibility in an unusually tough external environment," he said.