Brasília, June 8, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he is convinced that the goal of reaching 11 million families (around 44 million people) through the Family Grant Program by the end of 2006 will be met. "Today I am convinced that we will succeed in reaching the mark of 11 million people receiving three times more than what they did, on average, up to the day when we assumed the Presidency of the Republic," the President affirmed, yesterday (7), during a speech before the Bahian Legislative Assembly, where he received the titles of Citizen of the City of Salvador and Citizen of Bahia.

According to the President, the state and the city of Salvador have deserved "special attention with regard to the program, which serves 557,442 families in Bahia." In Salvador, the President pointed out, 85,698 families are being benefitted, according to May's statistics, 27,738 families fewer than the target set for the city.

Lula admitted that the numbers are meager, and he said that the ideal would be for all Brazilians to be able to sustain themselves with the fruits of their own labor, without needing to "live on favors from the mayor, the state, and the federal government."

The President affirmed that he operates on the logic that he was elected for a four-year mandate and criticized those who demand haste from the federal government. "A lot of people who governed this country for many, many years insist that we do in 17 months that which they were unable to accomplish in 17 years."

According to him, the absence of an income distribution policy in the past originated a debt when it comes to the Brazilian population. "Social policy accumulated a historical backlog . Social policy that could have been better, if we had taken advantage of the 50 years, between 1930 and 1980, when Brazil grew at an average of 7% per year," the President remarked, claiming that responsibility for paying the debt pertains not only to him, but to "governors, mayors, members of city councils and state assemblies, and Brazilian society, in relation to society itself."

Translator: David Silberstein