The World Cup is around the corner, and the elections too

Brazil is living a huge strike wave days before the World Cup. This week São Paulo came to a halt when bus drivers stopped working. And this friday president Dilma almost couldn't finish her speech in Brasilia due to the protest of public servants in strike. 

Protests during Dilma's speech this friday

It's no surprise that strikes occur at this time of the year, as each union has its own calendar of negotiations. But now organized workers are taking advantage of the World Cup to leverage their negotiation position, as the world's eyes are turned to Brazil. And that's been picked up by the Brazilian press. 

In this saturday's edition, Folha de S. Paulo calls attention to the fact that Dilma is even considering buying a terrain near the Itaquerão stadium in São Paulo to halt homeless protests in the region. The land would be designated to housing projects.

Both Folha and O Globo gave a fairly big space to former football player (now a member of the World Cup committee in Brazil) Ronaldo's quote about being ashamed of the country's lack of organization  -- it was the cover of Folha. Also on the World Cup, O Estado de S. Paulo revealed that the already very ambitious Brazilian project of receiving the World Cup in 12 cities was even more gigantic: it involved 17 cities, according to Fifa.

Elections

This week another survey for the presidential election was released. From Ibope/Nielsen, the results point out to a small recovery from Dilma Rousseff, from 37% to 40% of the vote intentions, but also a greater chance for a second round of elections, as her adversaries grew more. 

To wrap this post up, I just liked to call attention to Aloizio Mercadante's interview to Folha de S, Paulo two weeks ago. There, the current minister of the Civil House admitted the government's price control policy (a very unusual, not to say inefficient, way of halting inflation). He was later unauthorized by the Finance minister Guido Mantega, but my personal opinion is that mr. Mercadante's ideas resonate deeply in the Brazilian government, and are the first honest acknowledgment of the true Brazilian economic policy. (See Mercadante's interview).