Brazil’s Temer says he hopes flagship social program ends

Brazil's Temer says he hopes flagship social program ends | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2017 file photo, Simone Batista, holding her baby Arthur, looks into the camera as tears roll down her cheeks while she recounts being cut from the "Bolsa Familia" government subsidy program for low-income people, at her shack home in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazilian President Michel Temer has said in a radio interview Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, he hopes the country can eliminate the flagship social program, which pays poor families about $50 a month. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

SAO PAULO – Brazilian President Michel Temer has said he hopes the country can eliminate a flagship social program that has lifted millions of families out of poverty in the last decade.

Temer said in an interview with Radio Jornal on Friday that he would like Bolsa Familia, which pays poor families about $50 a month, to be scrapped.

Bolsa Familia is seen as a tough initiative to criticize ahead of Brazil’s general elections in October. The program costs about $8 billion annually and helps more than 1 million families nationwide.

The program was implemented under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is the presidential front-runner despite a criminal conviction that could bar him from running in upcoming elections.

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Abbey Westbury

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