Is the rag burning between Lula and his main ally? In recent weeks, the left-wing president has been confronted in a pressing way with the demands of what remains the largest mass organization in Brazil, the Movement of the Landless (MST), whose activists have multiplied demonstrations and strikes. ‘glow. At the risk of annoying, even shaking, a head of state whom they nevertheless helped to elect in October 2022.
The most recent action took place on July 31 in Petrolina, in the heart of the arid northeastern Sertão. Thousands of members of the MST occupy in a spectacular way and the raised fist a farm, property of the public agricultural research agency (Embrapa). Objective: to force the government to respect its commitments and find land for nine hundred landless farming families in the region.
The action is part of a larger context of effervescence of the movement. Four months ago, the MST launched its “Red April” and occupied at least nine farms across the country. Strengthened by its militant power (nearly 500,000 farming families), the landless militants intend to exert all their weight on the march of the country, in order to obtain a fairer distribution of land as well as the agrarian reform demanded since decades.
A “fearful” government
After the Jair Bolsonaro years, who described the landless as “terrorists” and advocated against them the use of “flamethrower”, it is an understatement to say if the left is expected at the turn. “Comrade Lula”, founder of the Workers’ Party (PT), has been a fellow traveler of the movement since the 1980s. During his first two terms (2003-2011), he had redistributed nearly 50 million hectares of land and opened the floodgates of credit to small farmers. What guarantee him a solid popularity.
“Lula represents the return of democracy and the reconstruction of Brazil. But that does not mean that we stop being autonomous, defending agrarian reform and organizing popular mobilization! », assumes Ceres Hadich, national coordinator of the MST. Especially since eight months after the return to business of the president, according to her, nothing or almost nothing has been done in favor of the landless. What arouse the disappointment, even the indignation of the troops. Recently, Joao Pedro Stedile, founder and historical figure of the movement, torpedoed in the press a government deemed ” very slow “ And “fearful”.
“We know that the task is not easy for Lula, after the chaos left by Bolsonaro”, concedes Ceres Hadich. It is also, she acknowledges, the complex political equation of the president, who controls only a fifth of the seats in Congress. The slightest social progress is conditional on the agreement of the formations of the conservative establishment, won over to the views of agribusiness and the big landowners.
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