During a ceremony to install new members of the Council of the Republic, December 28, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that, based on his faith in the Brazil’s future, he hopes he won’t need to summon them to resolve any emergency situation in the country.
“There is no room for a crisis in Brazil in 2005,” he affirmed. According to Lula, Brazil exceeded all the expectations ventilated at the beginning of this year, and 2005 will be an even better.
According to the Federal Constitution, it is the duty of the Council of the Republic, a high-level advisory body to the Presidency, to provide assistance concerning matters involving the country’s stability, such as wars and situations of risk.
The Council of the Republic is presided by the President of the Republic, and its permanent membership is composed of the Vice-President, the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the Minister of Justice, and six native-born Brazilian citizens over 35 years old.
Earlier this week Lula said today that he is the “most optimistic of Brazilians.” He called 2004 an extraordinary year.
“We took tough steps in order to assure the Brazilian people that we could put Brazil in its rightful place, enabling the people to improve their living conditions, the economy to resume growth, and to generate the necessary jobs and undertake an income distribution policy. After all, that is why the people elected me,” Lula said in the final “Breakfast with the President” program of 2003.
Lula also referred to some of his Administration’s accomplishments this year: approval of the Senior Citizens’ Statute, diminution of domestic debt, implantation of the University for All Program (Prouni), the Oral Health Program, the Biodiesel Program, and the Community Pharmacy Program, as well as the Family Grant program, which benefitted 6.5 million families this year. The goal for 2005 is to reach 8.7 million families, he stated.
Agência Brasil