Lula’s Speech in Salvador

Lula’s speech in Salvador inauguration of Aeronautic Institute, in defense of a big activist welfare state working in benefit of the people and against the reactionary elites.

“I don’t know if you noticed that, after listening to everyone speak, it would be unnecessary to make speeches here about the Aerospace Technological Park of Bahia. But I think this is the first time I visit Bahia in 2024. And I wanted to tell you that visiting the states of the Federation will be a routine for me from now on. Unlike Jerônimo, who inherited a well-planted farm, with prepared seeds, meaning fertilizer already placed in the soil, and he is in the first year only harvesting what has been planted over the years.

I inherited a country devastated by a locust plague that destroyed almost everything we had done in thirteen years of government. I don’t know if you noticed that we no longer had the Ministry of Culture, we no longer had the Ministry of Fisheries. We never had a Ministry for Indigenous Peoples.

We not only eliminated Ministries, but we also ended public policies. Just so you have an idea, Jerônimo, it had been almost 7 years since there was a raise in the school lunch for 47 million children in this country.

Luciana knows, Luciana knows that in just one year, she had to invest much more in Science and Technology, in scholarship payments, than had been done in the previous 4 years because practically any possibility of investment in this country had been destroyed.

And what worries me is that a country the size of Brazil, with the quality of the Brazilian people and the size of the Brazilian people’s dream, cannot live on lies. We cannot live on recklessness, we cannot live on provocations, we cannot live on fake news, as if it were a 24-hour lie industry in this country.

This country needs to give itself a chance. This country is too big to be treated as if it were a small country. This country has extraordinary potential, and we have proven that twice. This country could have been recognized as the fifth-largest economy in the world long ago. But there are many people in this country who insist on regressing.

What have they done to our Petrobras? The privatization of Eletrobras. The privatization of Eletrobras, people don’t like it to be mentioned, but it was a mockery in this country in a strategic sector like the energy sector.

I am indignant because just last night I had a meeting of almost two hours with comrade Haddad discussing the economic future of this country, the perspective of what is happening in the world. And I want to tell you that I am more optimistic today than I was during the campaign, Wagner. I am much more optimistic. Because I think that we, who have taken on the role of governing an important state like Bahia, an important municipality, or an important country, cannot say that things cannot be done; we cannot say that we cannot do things.

What we need is the courage to assume our role. This country will never be the country we want if we do not consider that we need to improve the quality of life of 80% of the Brazilian population, that we need to improve the minimum wage, that the poorest people need the right and opportunity to study and work. We want to create a society of middle-class standards.

I don’t want a society with someone sleeping on the street, in the gutter, with people begging for soup at the end of the week at the city hall door. This is not the country we want. The country we want is one where everyone has equal opportunities, a chance to study, a chance to work, and take care of their lives. And we will not build this country if we are not stubborn. If we kept discussing whether we could do things, we wouldn’t do them.

So I wanted to tell you that I came here to announce the launch of an Aerospace Technological Park, and it’s not just anything. It’s important to understand, my dear Deputy Pastor Isidório, with your famous bible in hand. It is necessary to understand that we were placed in the world to persist, not to accept anything as impossible. The only thing impossible in the world is God sinning; everything else we can do, and we can do a lot. And this PAC, Jerônimo, this PAC has to be executed.

You saw what happened in Rio de Janeiro with the flood. And when any flood happens, the first response is always from the Federal Government. And people always need the Federal Government, and the Federal Government has to help.

But analyzing what happened in Rio de Janeiro, we realized that since 2013, there are several contracted works to take care of hills and streams that were not used. Most of the works were not done. Many works are only 15%, 20% complete. Only R$ 1 billion out of R$ 1.6 billion was used, and of that one billion, no work was finished, none.

So it is important, Jerônimo, that you inherited this state. You inherited a state administered for 16 years by PT people, by a person of the quality of Wagner and Rui. And you are very clever because what I saw, you have already improved a lot there. From the first speech I saw you make to today, you have already advanced a lot. You have to do more than both of them. What they did is already in the past. You know, Bahia has already used it, Bahia has already enjoyed it, and now you have to have something new.

And that’s why this year is the year of harvest. Last year we dealt with, we took over a country almost destroyed, with thousands of paralyzed projects, from daycare to university. From daycare to school, from UBS to hospitals, all paralyzed. Stubbornly paralyzed because it was not part of the logic of the past government to make this country grow. We decided to make this country grow.

So last year, we planted. We took care of plowing the land, fertilized it, planted the seeds, covered the seeds, and now the weather is good. I know that in the Northeastern sowed land, the weather is not good. The drought is affecting our small and medium producers. I want to say right now not to worry because the Federal Government will help you get out of this predicament. You can bring a piece of the bill to us; we will be partners in the reconstruction of production capacity.

So, this year is a year when I will travel a lot around Brazil. I am leaving here, going to Recife, visiting the refinery that was paralyzed for 14 years. It could already be refining 260 thousand barrels of oil per day, but it isn’t. I am going there to finish that refinery.

After that, I will launch the ITA (Aeronautics Institute) in Ceará. And why ITA in Ceará? For those who don’t know, ITA is located in the city of São José dos Campos, in São Paulo. It is perhaps one of the most important technological institutes we have in Brazil. People educated at ITA, people who graduate from ITA, know. Everyone says, “I’m a graduate engineer from somewhere.” But the ITA guy says, “I’m an engineer graduated from ITA.” Because it is a center of excellence.

And why are we going to do it in Ceará, Jerônimo? Because in Ceará, 40% of the young people who take the entrance exam to go to ITA are from Ceará. So I think we need to pay tribute to the state of Ceará by taking a branch of ITA so that it becomes as great as São Paulo.

And we will travel a lot; we will travel this country. Rest assured, Jerônimo, that if there is the inauguration of a toothpick factory, invite me, because it is necessary to show that good things happen in this country.

Sometimes you sit in front of a television, you almost fall into depression because it seems that nothing good is happening in the country, nothing good is happening in Bahia, nothing good is happening anywhere, despite the work. I want to tell you that I have never worked so much in eight years of presidency as I have this year. Because rebuilding is more difficult than doing something new. And we will rebuild this country.

Dear Alice Portugal, rest assured that you will be proud to have been a deputy again in my term as President of the Republic. And we will make this country grow again. We will make this country generate employment. We will increase the minimum wage. We will improve basic education. We will improve high school education. We will create more universities. And we will create a hundred more federal institutes in this country.

Because I want to prove once again, I apologize to the Brazilian elite, forgive me if this hits close to home, but the Brazilian elite never intended to educate our people. I say this repeatedly. And I will tell you why. This country was discovered in 1500. Spanish America was discovered in 1498, eight years earlier. By 1554, Peru already had its first university. And our first university came in 1920, 420 years after the discovery.

And why did we have the first university called “Universidade Brasil”? It wasn’t because they were worried that Wagner would take an engineering course there. It was because the King of Belgium was coming here. And at that time, the king, to travel, had to receive an honorary doctorate. So they gathered various faculties that Brazil had and created a university.

And I want to know if you know of any country in the world that developed without first investing in education? When will we have a Silicon Valley here in Brazil? How is it possible that China, until recently, had a GDP smaller than Brazil’s? China was a very poor country. What was the revolution that happened in China? First, investment in education. The number of Chinese and engineering students worldwide is much higher than what we have studying here in Brazil.

Because education was never considered essential. I never forget that in the first ministerial meeting of 2003, a minister said there was no money to spend on education. I said, “Look, let’s prohibit the use of the word ‘expense’ in education.” Every time we talk about education, it’s an investment, and investment has an extraordinary return.

So, comrades, I want you to know that this year is the year of harvest. We will harvest many things that we planted. I will travel many times. I will come to Bahia many times. I can’t come during Carnival because during Carnival, I will work. Someone needs to work in Brazil, so I will work. I will work and cannot participate in Carnival.

But the concrete fact is this: I will have to take a trip on the night of the 13th. I am going to Egypt. And from Egypt, I will go to Ethiopia to participate in the African Union Congress because Brazil needs, once and for all, to start repaying the historical debt we have with the African people. Since Brazil is a poor country that cannot pay its debt in money, we pay in the transfer of knowledge, in the transfer of successful public policies, in the transfer of technology. That’s what I want to do because now we are in an exceptional moment.

I want you to pay attention to something that you can hold me accountable for from now on. This country has never had the opportunity to become a great nation as we have now. I will repeat: in 500 years, this country has never had the opportunity to become a great nation as it has now.

Brazil has done an extraordinary thing by recovering its international relations. Today I can tell you that Brazil is again an international protagonist. I can tell you that Brazil is respected in the world again. It’s important to remember that this year we will host the G20 in Brazil. Next year, we will hold it in the state of Pará. And then, next year, I will hold a BRICS meeting here in Brazil.

“And why does Brazil have a chance to grow? Because there’s this thing called, you know, Planet Earth being destroyed by human irresponsibility. In fact, humans are fantastic because they are so creative that they can self-destruct. So what’s the problem? The world needs to make a gigantic effort so that we reduce the possibility of global warming. Those who don’t believe in global warming need to notice the changes in weather conditions in various parts of the world. It’s raining a lot where it didn’t rain. It’s raining little where it always rained a lot. It’s flooding where it never flooded. It’s drying up where it never dried up. Even worldwide, fires in places that were not prone to fires. And all of this is due to global warming. Have you noticed the heat we are experiencing? We have experienced periods where this heat in Brazil was the strongest in the last 100 years. In Europe, the heat reached 40 degrees.

And Brazil has the greatest potential in the world to help solve this problem with so-called renewable energy. This country already has 87% of its electrical energy renewable. No other country in the world has this; we do. But this country has ethanol; this country can have biodiesel; this country can have biomass. This country can produce a thousand types of fuels that other countries cannot.

Furthermore, this country is going to be the largest producer of green hydrogen in the world. And we don’t want to produce hydrogen just to sell. We want to be the major hydrogen producer so that industries come to produce their green products here in Brazil. If we want to reduce emissions and the aggravation of the greenhouse effect, Brazil is a chance. And then there’s the issue of the African continent, which is also an extraordinary opportunity.

That’s why we are very, very interested in discussing this issue of the ecological transition of this country, the climate transition of this country, the energy transition. It’s an opportunity, it’s an opportunity that God is giving us. So, friends, it’s an extraordinary chance.

I know that you are investing a lot in the potential of green hydrogen. I know that other states are investing. Piauí is investing, Ceará is investing, Rio Grande do Norte is investing. And when I talk about Brazil, I’m talking about the Brazilian Northeast as well. It’s a great opportunity in the Northeast. I think that since the Portuguese crown arrived here in Brazil, or since Brazil was discovered, possibly the Northeast has in this half of the 21st century, listen, governor, the chance to have the development potential equal to any state in the country.

The Northeast cannot accept that it was born to be seen by the world as the place with the highest infant mortality, the highest illiteracy, the highest school dropout, the most people receiving Bolsa Família, the most people dying of malnutrition. It’s not the Northeast we want to create, people. It’s not that Northeast. I can tell you from life experience that it costs very little, very little, to invest in the poor of this country and invest in improving their lives.

When we improve people’s lives, you know what will happen? There will be less robbery, less violence. Did you see, Rui, yesterday there was a crime spree in Rio de Janeiro at 3 o’clock in the afternoon? These phenomena that are happening, this abuse of organized crime, this growth of all this, I can say that there are a thousand cases, but the main one is the absence of the Brazilian state in not taking care of people at the right time.

And the right time starts with elementary education. Elementary education has to be a priority. If the child is well educated in the early years, that child will thrive and grow. If they are not well educated, they will have a genetic defect, they will have a defect of origin, and they will not be able to progress.

And you can help build this country. Rui believes a lot in this PPP thing. Let’s see if we can do it in Brazil. Let’s see if we can do it in Brazil, make this country take a leap in quality. Who takes pleasure in seeing people starving on the street? Who takes pleasure in seeing children begging on the street? Who takes pleasure in seeing women with children lying on a sidewalk? And often we pass by and even turn away because it’s ugly? Who is to blame for this? Is it the president? Is it the governor? Is it the mayor? No. It’s us. It’s us, the Brazilian society, who need to raise our heads and take care of this country because it is our responsibility. And may Bahia serve as an example for many things that I will do from now on in this country.

Congratulations to the Aeronautics, congratulations to the Governor, because now you will have an Aerospace Technological Park in Bahia. The name is so beautiful that Jerônimo couldn’t even say it right, “Technological Park.”

And this is what will happen all over Brazil. Get ready, folks, get ready, because I want to have. I have three years in office, and in these three years, I want to dedicate so that you still live in a country where people smile again. Don’t be afraid of violence, don’t sleep on the street, don’t beg for alms.

And then, Wagner, I see you there, we are going to create a special policy for the elderly. This is something that we are going to create. This is something that we are going to create a working group to think carefully because Brazil is becoming an old country. Brazil is having an old population. And not everyone is fortunate enough to be a strong old person like me, like Otto, like Wagner, like José Mucio. Not everyone has a young person at 78 looking like they’re 30.

But I am concerned about creating a working group to present to Brazil a proposal for special attention to people who are getting old and who have no one to take care of them. This is a problem that will arise. So, we have to take care of the child, the teenager. I don’t know if you saw this week, we approved the law, the law was sanctioned that every young person going to high school has a savings account. He will receive, you know, R$ 200 reais per month deposited in a savings account for him. And if he manages to graduate, he can only withdraw the total when he graduates; he can take a little bit during the study. Because the highest school dropout is in high school.

The boys can’t complete the entire course, or they don’t like to do it, or we can’t motivate them. So, we are trying to see if with the scholarship, we can motivate these boys to finish their technical courses, learning a profession. If not, we won’t take a leap in quality.

That’s why, Jerônimo, I’m here happy. I didn’t know it was Rui Costa’s birthday party because if I had known, I would have done it in Brasília last night, but I didn’t know. I want to tell you that I will come here to Bahia other times. This is a state that I have a relationship of love, a very affectionate relationship, not only for the people in this fight but because Bahia represents a lot for this country.

So, comrades from Bahia, I won’t say ‘long live Bahia’ because here I know that the governor cheers for Vitória. I also want to say that I didn’t know about the attachment of the people to Bahia. I also cheer for Vitória. Solidarity. We’re back to Serie A with the goal of being champions this year.

A kiss in the heart, a kiss to all of you, and until our next visit to Bahia. Have a good carnival!”