Daily Times

BRASILIA: Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer vowed to get Latin America’s largest economy back on track after a cascade of crises-finally put an end to 13 years of leftist rule.

He presided over the first meeting of his new business-friendly cabinet and set out its priorities including; creating a leaner government, balancing finances to address a crippling recession, and rooting out the corruption that has been uncovered at the highest levels of Brazilian politics and business by a huge judicial probe.

“I want to get the country back on the rails,” Temer said in his first interview as the elected. Temer has become the acting president after taking over from his suspended predecessor Dilma Rousseff, who now faces an impeachment trial in the Senate. Temer’s chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha, said that the new government faced a challenging to-do list.

“We’re living through the worst economic crisis in the history of Brazil,” he said. “The solution is out with corruption and in with efficiency.” Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles is tasked with restoring confidence in Brazil’s economy. He said that his priority would be cutting spending. He pledged not to cut the popular social programmes launched under the Workers’ Party (PT) as long as beneficiaries really need them.

“Maintaining a social program doesn’t mean maintaining the misuse of a social program,” he said. The president asked for patience as his team works to turn around an economy stuck in its worst recession in decades. “I’m not going to be able to work miracles in two years,” he said. That timeframe belies the strange leadership limbo in which Brazil finds itself with a pending impeachment trial that could last up to six months.

Political analysts say Rousseff will likely be removed from office for good by a two-thirds vote in the Senate and Temer is clearly betting he will hold power until the next presidential election in 2018.