Brazil's populist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is confronted by discontent over unkept promises and his inability to deal with Brazil's economic problems.

By ANDREW DOWNIE
Special to The Herald

RIO DE JANEIRO - The honeymoon is over for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula da Silva is facing his toughest moment yet 15 months into his four-year term as discontent spreads over his inability to make the myriad changes he promised on the campaign trail.

A corruption scandal inside his Workers' Party, known as PT, has weakened the government and little is getting done. The growth he promised is proving painfully slow and the social changes so integral to his government program remain distant.

Adding to his woes are strikes by federal workers, an angry wave of invasions by landless peasants, new figures showing near-record annual deforestation in the Amazon jungle and turmoil on two Indian reservations.

''This is the worst moment of his government so far,'' said Walder de Goes, a political consultant in the capital city of Brasilia. ``The government is disoriented.''

BRIBERY SCANDAL

The problems began in February, when an assistant to José Dirceu, Lula da Silva's right-hand man and one of the most powerful men in Brasilia, was caught soliciting bribes that were allegedly used for the PT's election campaigns.

Although Dirceu was not personally accused of wrongdoing, the allegations shook the administration and forced it to spend valuable time and effort defending itself from attacks. Visibly weakened by the scandal, the pressure from the peasants, striking federal employees and political parties have taken their toll and turned the debate over Lula da Silva's handling of the sluggish economy into a bigger issue.

Although he promised to reinvigorate the economy -- and create 10 million jobs in the process -- Lula da Silva maintained his predecessor's fiscal caution as the economy shrank last year by 0.2 percent.

His failure to take bolder measures has distressed people inside and outside PT and is starting to cost him politically, analysts said.

Senators with the Liberal Party of his vice president announced last week they would no longer take orders from PT whips, while the PT's biggest ally in Congress, the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, known as the PMDB, also distanced itself from the government.

''The PMDB has calculated that it is not smart to remain so close to a party that is taking them into a hole,'' de Goes said, adding that the lack of support in Congress has meant that little is getting done. ``Not even a temporary measure has passed parliament in the last two weeks because the government can't meet the expectations of its allies.''

Without the support of the PMDB's 23 senators Lula da Silva's government would be toothless, analysts said. He met last week with PMDB leaders and appointed party loyalists to top positions with the Banco do Brasil, the National Institute of Social Security and several other state-run organizations.

HIRING PLAN

He also announced he would hire 40,000 government employees -- a move his predecessor Fernando Henrique Cardoso called ''stupefying'' -- and news reports over the weekend suggested an additional package will be announced soon that is aimed at creating new jobs, including 100,000 in the military and thousands more on infrastructure projects.

''The opposition has perceived the government is weakened and they are trying to get more out of it,'' said University of Brasilia politics professor David Fleischer.

Lula da Silva hopes the measures will bolster his government and lift an approval rating that has fallen to 28 percent from 51 percent last year, according to a recent poll.

But even he, Lula da Silva admitted last month, may fail to bring about the changes that 53 million Brazilians elected him to adopt.

''Don't expect me to be more than a president,'' he told employees at a GM factory in Sao Paulo last month. ``I don't have the power of God to perform miracles that some people think I should have.''