Temer wants to be remembered in history for services provided to Brazil

President Michel Temer said he wants to be remembered in history for the services he provided the country by promoting the necessary overhauls. In an interview on CBN Radio, he denied he will run for re-election in 2018 even though the structural changes submitted by him have been approved and despite the improvement in Brazil's situation.

According to the president, former Deputy Eduardo Cunha, who has been arrested in Curitiba as part of Operation Car Wash, has “no influence” over the government.

“If I come to the end of my administration under these conditions [reforms approved and economic recovery]—and I'm very much convinced I will—all I want to be is go down in History. I want to be remembered by the service I render my country and acknowledged as the one who provided a service to his country,” he stated, denying he will be bitten by the “blue fly” of power, as journalist Jorge Bastos Moreno said, in a reference to a poem by Machado de Assis.

Pension reform

On the difficulties approving the overhaul in the country's pension system, the president once again argued that it should be approved “as it is”—i.e., as the text sent to Congress was originally drafted. The federal government submitted the proposal “it finds necessary for Brazil not to [become like] states like Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and Minas Gerais,” the president said, which are facing “major difficulties” in their budgets for social security.

“Brazil's landscape mustn’t turn into that of the Brazilian states some four, five years from now,” he said.

When asked about the critical remarks from Senator Renan Calheiros, head of the PMDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) in the Senate, who said former lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha still plays a role in the government, the president denied it was true. “There's absolutely no [influence.] Can you see how Eduardo Cunha, far away as he is, could influence anything here? Not at all,” he answered.

In his view, Renan Calheiros, who headed the Senate up to February this year, has held an ongoing dialog with the government. “I'm sure he'll keep helping us. He'll help us approve the reforms. I'm sure our ties will remain solid,” he said.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira