Rousseff says she takes protests “humbly”
“You have to accept that voices are diverse in a complex country like this, but you have to be responsible with the institutions,” said Dilma Rousseff - 
President Dilma Rousseff said yesterday (Mar. 16) that she met the anti-government demonstrations this Sunday (15) with a humble, but positive frame of mind. According to her, the message from the demonstrations is that “the government must talk and listen. 'Listen' is the word and 'dialogue' is the action,” the president said.
According to her, the government's attitude has been to try to reach some degree of consensus. “You have to accept that voices are diverse in a complex country like this, but also be responsible with the institutions,” she said mentioning the Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary.
Also as part of her address at the ceremony that sanctioned the new Code of Civil Procedure, the president said, “when I saw hundreds and thousands of citizens speaking out, I couldn't help thinking that it's worth fighting for freedom and democracy. This country is stronger than it's ever been.”
In a news conference at Palácio do Planalto following the ceremony, the president once again said she is open to dialogue and that the federal government has responded consistently to the calls from the streets. And she reaffirmed her promise, this time “for the upcoming days,” to introduce a package of measures against corruption, one of the main demands of protesters on Sunday.
On the other hand, the president defended the government's recent austerity policy – largely criticized in the demonstrations – of restricting credit, cutting down pension benefits, and increasing fuel and energy prices. She admitted that the government's tools to weather the economic crisis are now exhausted and the government needs to “change direction.”
After listing the efforts made in the economic area to mitigate the effects of the global crisis in her first term as president, Rousseff conceded the approach may have failed, but she does not believe they have made things worse.
“While we may possibly have used the wrong dose of our crisis remedies,” she admitted, “no one can say we didn't do everything we could to help economic recovery. Any human activity is subject to failure, and I'm far from thinking I haven't made any mistakes. Now what I can't accept is taking the blame for something that could have been even worse if we hadn't taken action [to mitigate the negative effects],” she explained.
Rousseff said that despite the humble attitude of recognizing her mistakes, she can only dialogue with those who are willing to talk, and ruled out the possibility of a “confession of errors”. “If someone still thinks I wasn't humble enough in any point of dialogue, they can show me where, and I'll do something about it. They just need to tell me where I've failed and I'll see what I can do. We're willing to talk to anyone, with a humble heart, willing to listen,” she reiterated.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Rousseff says she takes protests “humbly”
