Renan Santos backs abolishing labor courts, opposes end of six-day workweek - Valor International

Mission Party presidential candidate Renan Santos reiterated his opposition to ending the 6x1 work schedule, which he described as a “dangerous agenda” and a “populist” measure. In an interview with newspapers Valor and O Globo, and radio network CBN, he acknowledged that the position could cost him votes at a time when he is seeking to gain ground in the presidential race.

Santos said, however, that he sees room to win voters from both President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party, PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL, Rio de Janeiro), and said he is not working with the possibility of failing to reach a potential runoff. In public security, he advocated declaring a permanent state of exception in slums controlled by organized crime and building more prisons across the country.

“They are promising that people will work less and earn more. This is a dramatic problem, coming from a populist measure by a president of the Republic [Lula] who is trying to bring the discussion about work back,” he said.

Criticizing the proposal to reduce working hours, Santos said that, if elected, he would make changes to labor legislation if the measures win approval by Congress. The issue began advancing in the legislature after Lula met with Chamber of Deputies Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicans of Paraíba) and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (Brazil Union of Amapá) to define the government’s priority agenda. Santos reiterated that he intends to maintain a 44-hour workweek under a new labor regime. The bill approved by lawmakers in May provides for reducing the workweek to 40 hours, with a transition period until that level is reached.

“Of course, this is a very dangerous agenda, especially for a Brazil whose sectors mainly involve retail and labor-intensive hiring and are already facing serious problems even before the measure is implemented,” he said. As an example, he cited companies that have closed or entered judicial recovery, such as Casas Bahia.

Santos also defended creating a new labor regime, with an alternative model to the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) and the Individual Microentrepreneur (MEI), allowing for expanded hiring and the formalization of workers without increasing the tax burden throughout the chain. In the candidate’s assessment, this model, which he did not detail, “goes beyond” the discussion over ending the 6x1 schedule.

During the interview, he said reducing working hours could increase informality, reduce tax collection, and make hiring more difficult. “There is a need to massively formalize Brazilians. We urgently need to formalize them. It is either that, or maintaining an alternative regime, a ‘B’ side of the economy, which I consider dangerous,” he said.

The Mission Party candidate also defended having the Labor Courts move “toward obsolescence and replacement,” a process he described as a “natural path.” Santos called the labor justice system a source of uncertainty and criticized the volume of lawsuits in the country. He also proposed that labor disputes be handled in civil courts, as he said occurs in other countries.

“The labor model comes with many costs and there is also the labor justice system, which is a ‘surprise box.’ We have the worst labor justice system in the world. It is the country with the most labor lawsuits in the world. I think it has to move toward obsolescence and replacement; I think that is a natural path,” he said.

In the economy, Santos again defended decoupling minimum funding levels for health and education from constitutional revenue rules and making broad spending cuts. Mission’s government platform estimates that the proposed fiscal reforms could generate savings of R$1.1 trillion through 2031.

The candidate also said he intends to review a series of subsidies but would maintain those granted to agribusiness. According to him, the sector is competitive, unlike other productive sectors, and the benefit would therefore be preserved. To justify the position, he cited a study by Insper economist Marcos Lisboa on agribusiness that, according to Santos, shows the sector is the only one recording productivity gains at levels competitive with other countries.

“A few subsidies will be maintained. Most Brazilian subsidies will disappear, especially state-level ones, with the new tax reform,” he said. Regarding tax incentives, Santos said the one granted to the Manaus Free Trade Zone is “highly ineffective” and would need to be reviewed under a potential Mission government.

On the same subject, he said he had invited Lisboa to join his potential government as a minister but did not reveal which ministry he had offered the economist. “I invited Marcos Lisboa to be my minister. I would like to have people of this caliber, Marcos Lisboa, Elena Landau [CEO of Elandau Consultoria Econômica],” he said. He also said he should soon announce the names he is considering to head ministries in his administration. Lisboa and Landau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In public security, one of the campaign’s main platforms, Santos advocated retaking territories controlled by criminal factions, with operations carried out by state police forces and the adoption of a state of exception in those areas. The strategy would also include targeting the leaders and financing of criminal organizations, followed by a policy of “de-favelization” and the construction of prisons inspired by models in the U.S. and El Salvador.

“What we are going to do is a policy of occupation, destruction of organized crime leadership, strategic dismantling with national coordination of these factions, something that has never been attempted and, finally, the central issue, which is the policy of de-favelization,” he said.

Regarding declaring a state of emergency in territories occupied by criminal factions, Santos did not detail how the measure would be implemented and said each region has its own particularities. He rejected the idea of fragmented territorial occupation and compared the fight against crime to a war.

“This is not a game of Risk in the sense that I am going to occupy small territories. I recognize that there is a war. I need to dismantle the enemies I have in this war, I have to strangle them through the territorial occupation they carry out and through the financial work and businesses they operate,” he said.

According to Santos, the actions would require the participation of the federal government and integration among the federal, state and municipal governments. In his assessment, the main obstacle to fighting organized crime is the lack of coordination among the different levels of government.

“These actions will need to be integrated. Because the biggest problem is more about coordination and willingness than legislation. This is a multifactorial problem and therefore it needs to be driven by the president; a governor cannot solve it.”

Santos, who intends to declare war on crime on the first day of a potential administration, also proposed maintaining a permanent state of emergency in areas controlled by criminal factions. The argument is that residents of these places already have their rights restricted, such as the right to come and go freely. “I am not taking away a right that already exists; people live under an oppressive regime led by criminals.”

Based on the policy of occupation and targeting faction leaders, Santos said he intends to implement the “de-favelization” of Brazilian communities. The government platform calls for the complete de-favelization of the country within 10 years.

Addressing the issue, the candidate said he did not take into account the views of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in those areas when formulating his public security policy. He said the proposal was developed based on conversations with experts and residents of communities he visited during the campaign.

“I don’t care about NGOs. I talk to people. I am not going to talk to NGOs; I am going to talk to people,” he said.

Known for citing the system adopted by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele as a reference, Santos said the proposal to build new prisons is also inspired by U.S. and Salvadoran models. According to him, these systems combine “high prison volume” and “high control,” preventing factions from infiltrating the facilities.

Santos criticized the current prison system and said the facilities are “very susceptible to being controlled by drug traffickers.” “The prison system, which exists in many regions of Brazil, is definitely very susceptible to being controlled by drug traffickers; isolation is very poorly handled, administration is very precarious,” he said.

The candidate also defended a different structure for the prison system, which he called an “intermediate model.” According to him, the proposal would combine a “high volume of prisoners” with greater security and control, but he provided no further details.

Asked whether he would accept foreign immigrants deported or criminals sent by the U.S. into Brazilian prisons, as other countries in Latin America and Africa have done, Santos said he is not a “fan of this thesis.” He said the issue is not a Brazilian problem, which, in his view, has internal challenges just as significant to resolve. “I don’t see this as a business,” he said.

In health care, Santos said he had once been “skeptical of the SUS” but began defending the system after studying it. He stressed, however, that the Unified Health System (SUS) still has problems with access and needs to be improved. As one solution, he advocated adopting a care model inspired by “Doctor CV,” an app created by the government of El Salvador’s president, a country he also cited as a reference in his public security proposals.

“I believe in the SUS model. I was skeptical of the SUS until I studied it... But the SUS has many problems; there are very serious access problems. And one of the central issues to solve this is hyper-digitization, the use of big data, because that will provide so much agility,” he said.

The candidate cited the digitization of El Salvador’s health system as an example. According to him, while “Doctor CV” allows patient information to be integrated, the SUS still does not have a single medical record. “The SUS does not have a single medical record; it has been moving toward that for more than a decade, but it doesn’t have one,” he said.

Commenting on the bill that would criminalize misogyny, Santos opposed the proposal and said the text allows for “an expansive interpretation” of conduct that could be considered misogynistic. The criticism, however, was not accompanied by an alternative proposal. That is because the candidate’s government platform does not contain specific measures aimed at women.

According to him, while the bill could make any conduct deemed misogynistic subject to no statute of limitations, crimes related to violence against women are subject to statutes of limitations. “Femicide is not exempt from the statute of limitations. So the aggressor against a woman, when punished, his crime can prescribe, but a person who may be considered the author of a joke never prescribes? What a sick country,” he said.

Asked what measures he would adopt to combat violence and hate speech against women, Santos cited only education in schools as “a great example.” “I believe in education and not persecution. I don’t want to create an issue, one that is sensitive and important, as a club to keep censoring anyone you disagree with,” he said.

One of the challenges facing a potential Santos administration will be dealing with the government’s political composition. With only one representative in the Chamber of Deputies, Congressman Kim Kataguiri (Mission of São Paulo), the candidate said that, if elected, he intends to call political parties to “join him” even before taking office as president. The objective, according to him, would be to form a majority in Congress to approve measures he considers necessary but “truly unpopular.” “I will call the parties to join me, ‘are you in?’ Endorse the plan that won the election and let’s form a majority,” he said.

The candidate said there is currently a balance of political forces that “ranges from left to right” and that needs to “be fixed” in the country. “If I win the election, it means Brazilians voted for a rupture,” he said.

Regarding mandatory congressional amendments, an issue that has strained relations among the branches of government, Santos criticized President Lula and said the government lacked “concrete willingness” to act to adjust the transfer of funds. “Lula is dragging his feet on major measures in his government,” he said.

On institutional matters, Santos said he does not intend to have “any conflict” with the Supreme Court (STF). Still, he said he would not immediately comply with a single-justice ruling by the Supreme Court that he considers illegal.

“I don’t want any conflict with the STF. I will be a president who will be a peacemaker. I will not get into stupid conflicts. What I am saying is that I demand to be respected if I am president of the Republic,” he said. “It’s not that I’m going to act like a madman and disregard a court ruling,” he added.

Santos also said that if a single-justice ruling prevents the declaration of a Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO), he would not immediately withdraw troops from an area occupied by organized crime. “I can request [an injunction], but until it is [granted], I will not comply.”

In the electoral race, Santos said he sees room to win voters from both Lula and Flávio. He said, however, that he is not seeking the ideological vote of Lula’s supporters and acknowledged that he is unlikely to win over that electorate.

Asked whom he would support in a potential runoff between Lula and Flávio, Santos said he is not working with the “possibility of defeat” in the first round and therefore does not consider the possibility of being left out of the second round. The Mission candidate has 4% of voting intentions, according to a Datafolha poll released last week, while Lula has 39% and Flávio has 33%.

At the end of the interview, he said that although he had adopted a more combative tone against his opponents in the last debate, he “would not take the same approach” in another round.

This article was translated from Valor Econômico using an artificial intelligence tool under the supervision of the Valor International editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity, and adherence to our editorial standards. Read our Editorial Principles.