Marcel Bursztyn, scholar, with an enviable academic curriculum vitae and intellectual output, wrote a clarifying book, The Country of Alliances: Elites and Continuity in Brazil, (Vozes 1990.) In that book, he convincingly shows how the elites are masters of political mimicry, this is, their strategy is always to be the government, without regard for internal and ideological contradictions. They even go as far as to say: «it is better not to be the government for a short period than to be forced to be opposition in the following government» (p. 118.)
We are witnessing the building of alliances by the Lula government with the justifiable intention of guaranteeing governability, the real meaning of which no one knows for sure, due to the absence of a clear political vision of nation and of the type of development. But alliances are always necessary in a democracy, and it is best to try to make them.
The important thing, however, is to maintain a strict vigilance over them, because we know they have only been good for the elites and never for the people. The deck of cards is always the same, the only things that change are the ways the deck is shuffled. That is to say, the nature of power does not change; what changes are only the styles and positions of power. That is the main reason why agrarian reform is never done and shanties are preferred; agrarian reform implies the institutionalized transformation of the structures of production, while shanties leave them untouched.
The elites and oligarchies that hide behind the main political parties, above all the ones that hide behind the great networks of the means of mass communications, do not like Lula. He is not from their class, he occupies a position that has never belonged to the popular classes. Moreover, he is not totally trustworthy: he can suddenly change, because the roots of his social origins start to make themselves felt and to demand another deck of cards... But, since he has won, the elites, by mimetic instinct, come closer to him, try to swallow him, with plenty of stomach-aches. They have in their favor the logic of the prevailing system that sets the tone of politics. Starting with the economy, they have powerful lobbies and directly pressure the President, and even try many ways to co-opt him.
What is it that guarantees a minimum of political health to these alliances, so that they may be good for all the country? The addition of an absent third: the organized social movements and civil society in general. Besides populism there has never been a direct civil society-State relationship. Now, it is urgent. Lula has to call for and maintain a permanent organic relationship with the social movements, whence he came, and which, in truth, guaranteed his reelection. They cannot wait to be invited. They must demand it. They cannot sit waiting for public policies made through alliances with the political parties. They are the ones who must set the tone, strongly pressing in favor of the large majorities. Without this, the government will lose its popular and emancipatory character, and will be hostage to the logic of the alliances that always used the State for their own benefit.
The social movements brought the masses -whose human potential was always rejected- to the condition of conscientious citizens who struggle for another type of Brazil. The people, and not the elites, is the repository of the hope and possibilities of another future for Brazil.
If Lula does not understand this, his second term will be an unforgivable historical waste. What is important to us is neither the PT nor Lula, but the Brazilian people who, through them, can make a qualitative leap towards better days.

- Leonardo Boff, Theologian.
( Translation: Servicios Koininia, Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas)