Brazil's Cardoso toasts end of Congress session
Reuters, Friday, February 13, 1998 at 13:02
By Joelle Diderich
BRASILIA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian lawmakers patted
each other on the back as a six-week extraordinary session of
Congress drew to a close on Friday with a tally of two key
reforms passed and a number of important new laws on the books.
Bills aimed at streamlining the overstaffed civil service
and the loss-making social security system cleared important
votes this week after languishing in Congress for nearly three
years. Both reforms now stand to be fully approved in March.
Local media reported Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso cracked open the champagne in a private celebration
with senior politicians on Thursday night as political analysts
forecast the success of the reforms would bolster his chances
of re-election in October.
"I would like to note the immense effort made by Congress
and the extraordinary result of this legislature, which I think
I can safely say is comparable to none other in our
history...in terms of approving significant laws," Cardoso said
on Thursday.
The government called the extraordinary session of Congress
during its traditional end-of-year recess after the crisis in
Asia shone the spotlight on Brazil, making long-awaited
structural reforms a priority once again.
By attacking two heavy contributing factors to the
country's budget deficit, the president hopes to show nervous
investors that Brazil is not going to follow Asia into economic
turmoil.
Deputies and senators took advantage of the session to pass
important laws on the environment, traffic, intellectual
property rights and a Land Bank to benefit landless workers.
Cardoso, speaking Thursday at a ceremony to sign a new
environmental bill into law, said the measure would prove to be
a turning point in preserving natural resources.
It sets down fines of up to $50 million and jail sentences
for crimes ranging from illegal logging and killing wild
animals to industrial pollution and graffiti.
Meanwhile, a new traffic code introduced last month imposed
tough penalties on drivers who ignore seatbelts, red lights and
pedestrian crossings in an effort to quell the anarchy on
Brazil's roads.
Congress' extraordinary session also approved the so-called
Software Law, which guarantees makers of computer programs
copyright for 50 years.
And Cardoso, in an effort to appease left-wing opposition
parties and the radical Landless Movement, approved the
creation of an agricultural bank that will provide loans for
landless people to buy property and grow crops.
Thousands of demonstrators led by the country's main labor
unions took to the streets this week to protest social security
reform, saying it represented one sacrifice too many for a work
force already facing rising unemployment.
The reform seeks principally to introduce minimum
retirement ages of 60 for men and 55 for women and to tie
pensions to contributions. Brazil is currently one of only
seven countries in the world believed not to have minimum
retirement ages.
The reform, if approved without substantial alterations in
March, will cut costs by $1 billion in 1998, but even so the
government expects the social security system to go more than
$5 billion in the red this year.
The government spent $23.2 million on extra pay for
deputies, senators and civil servants during the extraordinary
session, daily newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported on Friday.
joelle.diderich@reuters.com))
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
