BRAZIL: THE MAIN ISSUES OF THE ELECTION

Beyond the usual acrobatics of political debate, certain basic issues have been introduced into Brazil\'s current general election campaign. One of these is the size of the budget, where we see a clear distinction between the liberal platform of centre-right opposition candidate Geraldo Alckmin, current governor of Sao Paulo, who supports shrinking government and reining in public spending, and the current president\'s position of better spending without a commitment to its reduction, writes Emir Sader, a philosopher and co-ordinator of the Public Policy Laboratory of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, executive secretary of the Latin American Council on Social Sciences. In this article for IPS, Sader writes that another fundamental issue is Lula\'s making a top priority of regional integration policy, whereas Alckmin focuses on the FTAA and free-trade treaties, above all with the US. But Alckmin, who began his campaign promising a \'\'management shake-up\'\' if he came to power with sharp cuts in public spending, inspired by the privatisation process he began in Sao Paulo, then agreed to sign a document committing himself to do no more privatisations, a direct contradiction of the repeated declarations of his primary economic advisors, backed by ex-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, that he would go ahead with the privatisation of the state oil giant Petrobras. What changed his mind? The evidence that all of the successes of the Lula government are tied to policies and programmes that strengthen the government\'s presence in the public sphere, like social welfare, health, and culture policies, among others.