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New Mayors Announce Cuts and Protest Economic Crisis

01/02/2017 - 15h35

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FROM CURITIBA
FROM SAO PAULO

The new mayors assumed their posts on Sunday (1) with speeches that addressed the crisis and promised spending cuts.

The newly elected officials emphasized the unprecedented financial challenges and announced a focus on fighting "perks".

The new officials take their positions as public spending comes under fire. Revenue shrunk with the crisis and many cities cut projects and investments and suspended salary readjustments over the last two years. 

The new mayors signaled that they plan to continue with the fiscal tightening: even before assuming office, they cut secretaries and announces that they would commissioned positions. 

For Rio's mayor, Marcello Crivella (Brazilian Republican Party), the "perks" are a "nefarious symbol" of the abuse of power. "It's a moment of crisis. This calls for no spending," he said.

Crivella set a goal to reduce spending by 50% through commissioned posts with 25% stemming from contracts. 

"We are facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions, but it is an opportunity to change peoples' lives for the better," said the mayor of Porto Alegre, Nelson Marchezan Junior (Brazilian Social Democracy Party).

According to him, Brazil must learn how to deal with incompetence in resource management, which brought the economy "to its knees" and led to historically high unemployment rates. 

In Curitiba, Rafael Greca (Party of National Mobilization) promised to cut commissioned and remunerated posts by 40%. The municipal administration is unnecessarily bloated and partisan, serving only in the interest of power, not the people."

In Belo Horizonte, Alexander Kalil (Humanist Party of Solidarity) asked the councilors to use their "judgement" and said that the city's money will not be channeled to "exchange favors." 

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

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