Bolsonaro asked for support
BRASILIA: Brazil’s governors pressed President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday for more federal support in the Covid19 battle after he blasted them as jobkillers and undermined their orders with a decree keeping churches open at evangelical preachers’ request.
Bolsonaro has increasingly echoed the view of US President Donald Trump that jobs should be prioritised over restrictive measures to slow the outbreak, as world health experts suggest.
‘‘This wave of panic and hysteria is bigger than the virus itself,’’ he said on a Facebook broadcast.
But Bolsonaro did lobby yesterday for a subsidy for Brazil’s poorest that was passed by the lower chamber of Congress later in the day. The subsidy is meant for informal workers and small business people and amounts to 600 reais ($NZ199) per month for three months. The Bill still requires Senate approval.
The amount was a significant increase over previous versions of the Bill. Earlier yesterday in a public letter, Brazil’s governors argued that the federal government had not done enough to fund the fight against the virus.
Confirmed cases in Brazil had roughly doubled in four days to 2985 yesterday, with 78 dead.
In the state of Rio de
Janeiro, which relies on dwindling oil tax revenue to keep public services running, Governor Wilson Witzel said he may have to loosen an order closing businesses if the federal government does not offer aid.
‘‘The people will only accept confinement if they’re able to eat. Business leaders will only pause activity if they have conditions for financing,’’ Witzel said. ‘‘I can’t ask people to go hungry.’’
The governors’ letter listed eight proposed measures for Bolsonaro to take, such as pausing state payments to the federal government and helping states buy medical equipment.
Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria — who campaigned alongside Bolsonaro in 2018 but has become one of his chief critics during the crisis — said he expected to see concrete federal aid measures brought in within 72 hours.
Bolsonaro is under growing pressure over his handling of the outbreak, which he initially labelled a ‘‘fantasy’’ and continues to call ‘‘a little flu’’.
Across cities, protesters have been banging pans in almost nightly protests, and Bolsonaro’s support is down in polls, with Brazilians clearly favouring the governors’ response.
After Bolsonaro blasted some governors on Thursday for the ‘‘crime’’ of shutting down businesses amid the outbreak, he subverted their efforts with a decree yesterday exempting churches from closure orders.