Good morning! All eyes on Brazil’s Economy Minister. Michel Temer released from prison. As truckers threaten a new strike, diesel prices go up.
All eyes on Brazil’s Economy Minister
After President Jair Bolsonaro and House Speaker Rodrigo Maia spent a week publicly trading criticism, the government is relying on Economy Minister Paulo Guedes to lower the temperature and establish a dialogue between the government and Congress. Today, Mr. Guedes will speak before the House’s Committee of Constitution and Justice (CCJ)—where his pension reform bill is currently stalled.
Mr. Guedes has shown a lot of optimism about the reform, saying he expects the bill to pass within 3 or 4 months, “overcoming whatever communication problem there may be.” How Mr. Guedes performs today is being considered crucial for the future of the proposal. Yesterday, the government’s pension reform bill received the formal support of 11 employers’ unions. In Congress, six parties declared they will back the reform, with caveats: they won’t support changes to rural pensions, nor cuts to pensions for the poor.
Speaker Rodrigo Maia committed himself not to sabotage the administration with bills that would blow up the budget (which Congress did to Dilma Rousseff in 2015), nor will he accept impeachment requests...