Weekly Report - 27 January 2022 (WR-22-04)

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned the 2022 budget on 21 January, the deadline for doing so, with an eye to his expected re-election bid this October. The decision to veto spending in areas such as scientific research, while maintaining some questioned aspects of the budget which benefit Bolsonaro’s political allies, such as opaque discretionary spending for lawmakers, betrays the position of a “cornered president”, in the view of Brazilian business daily Valor Econômico.