With flexible plan, São Paulo state aims for gradual reopening
While São Paulo Governor João Doria (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, PSDB) clashes daily with President Jair Bolsonaro, Vice-Governor Rodrigo Garcia (Democrats, DEM), who also is a state secretary, is discreetly conducting political negotiations and monitoring all of the state's administrative actions. It also fell on Mr. Garcia, an influential member of the DEM's national committee, to coordinate the São Paulo Plan to gradually reopen the state's economy, even as cases keep growing significantly. He offers assertive responses to criticism of the flexible approach, which many believe is hasty and high risk. If the number of covid-19 cases runs out of control, it will irreversibly stain the rhetoric and image of Mr. Doria in his confrontation with the president.
With a certain naturalness, Mr. Garcia admits the plan takes into account more deaths and case figures growing to over 200,000. He argues that gradually reopening is a way of living with the virus intelligently and rules out any pressure from economic sectors when deciding. He believes the economic recovery will have to involve São Paulo, Brazil's largest economy, and the fiscal solution for the state is to make more concessions and public-private partnerships, whose announcements will resume possibly in July.
Mr. Garcia is firmly supporting Mr. Doria and believes the DEM-PSDB alliance is consolidated. He also assures that most of his party already ruled out endorsing Mr. Bolsonaro's potential re-election bid in 2022 and that building a centrist path with his boss as one of the leading figures is the solution. Read excerpts from the interview below:
Valor: Many experts have criticized the decision to start reopening the economy of São Paulo, arguing it's too early. The curve is still ascending, and we saw deaths reaching new records this week. Are these raising future risks?
Rodrigo Garcia: The São Paulo Plan, with the gradual and responsible opening of the economy, was very well thought out over these last 70 days. At the Crisis Office, we had online consultants doing case studies, what Italy got right, what went wrong, what Spain got right, what went wrong. In São Paulo, the system did not collapse and will not collapse. It would be easier for the government to extend the quarantine for another 30, 60, 90, 120 days. On April 1, we had 2,900 cases. On May 1, 30,000 cases. The epidemic grew tenfold in April and 3.6 times in May. The scenario now is about projections for the end of...
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃO