Brazil’s president faces challenges

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned Monday to a hero’s welcome in the capital of Brasilia and the difficult job of forging political alliances to shore up a government weakened by corruption allegations.

While Silva was re-elected with the largest number of votes of any president in Brazil’s history, his Worker’s Party saw its share of seats reduced in Congress.

Silva was greeted at Brasilia’s airport Monday by about 200 supporters waving the red flags of his Workers’ Party after winning 61 percent of the ballot – more than 58 million votes – in Sunday’s runoff against Geraldo Alckmin, a former Sao Paulo governor.

But Brazil’s fragmented political system and a slew of corruption allegations complicate Silva’s efforts to make good on promises to improve the lives of the country’s poor and expand the economy.

Some members of Alckmin’s party and the allied conservative Liberal Front Party, which now holds the largest bloc in Brazil’s Senate, have been clamoring for Silva’s impeachment over the corruption allegations.

Marco Aurelio Mello, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, said Silva could be stripped of the presidency if he is linked personally to the scandals, which have so polarized Congress that compromises will be difficult during a second term.

“No one is against good things. But no one is going to support the knavery that exists in this government, and I hope Lula corrects that,” Sen. Antonio Carlos Magalhaes of the Liberal Front told reporters.

Silva said Monday that he will work for approval of a political reform package that would limit campaign contributions and bar legislators from switching parties – a common practice in Brazil.

He also said the government would hold its course on monetary policies designed to check inflation and dismissed rumors that Finance Minister Guido Mantega would be replaced.

Mantega said the government’s priority in its second term would be creating jobs and promoting economic growth.

“There will be a change of emphasis from the first term, not a change in policy,” Mantega told reporters Monday. “In the first term, it was necessary to bring the economy into equilibrium. Now that we’ve done that, we will push on to the next phase of more intense growth and job creation.”

But first, Silva will have to pass key reforms to the tax, social security and political systems through Congress.

“Now he likely won’t have the Workers’ Party leading the Senate and the lower house,” said David Fleischer, a University of Brasilia political scientist. “He’ll have to negotiate more, and better distribute his Cabinet seats.”

Silva’s party was badly damaged by a series of scandals that included accusations that large monthly bribes were paid to lawmakers for support on key legislation.

High-level party members also were accused of planning to pay $770,000 in cash for files incriminating members of Alckmin’s Social Democracy Party.

Silva was never personally implicated in the corruption, but his image as a bastion of integrity was tarnished and federal police continue to investigate whether the money was raised through kickbacks.