The first draft of Lula’s manifesto fails to impress

If the Brazilian elections were today, a first-round landslide by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would be a true possibility. Leading each and every opinion poll, the center-left icon has been stingy with concrete proposals — in part, to avoid offering ammunition to his opponents, especially incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, the only one who could drag him into a runoff election.

On Monday, the Workers’ Party sent its manifesto for a third Lula term to six allied groups. The plan was penned by Alozio Mercadante, a former senator who served as Chief of Staff and Education Minister under former President Dilma Rousseff (Lula’s successor in 2010), and now heads the Perseu Abramo Foundation, the Workers’ Party’s arm in academia. 

The document brings 90 pointers or proposals, mostly regarding the economy. Parties from Lula’s coalition are now expected to analyze them and give their own input. 

Then, voters will be able to weigh in on the manifesto, before a final draft is released in August — a mere two months before Election Day.

The document does little to lift the mystery surrounding what Lula intends to do to deliver his promise of resuming growth, increasing employment and income, and fighting inflation — notably by expanding access to food, fuel, and energy.

The plan promises massive investments in infrastructure, but doesn’t say where the money would come from. Brazil’s investment rate this year will be lower than 82 percent of 170 countries surveyed by think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas. Only 2 percent of the federal budget is earmarked for investment.

Moreover, the document talks about repealing the 2017 labor reform, without necessarily outlining what would replace it. Given how the gig economy has changed the face of Brazil’s job market, the decades-old Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) seems unable to keep up with modern-day employment relationships. 

And the recent flip-flops by the Workers’ Party on the issue — oscillating between a repeal or a revision of specific points — suggest there might be little substance beneath the promise.

The plan also urges for the strengthening of trade unions while rejecting the return of mandatory union dues, in place before the...