It wasn’t exactly a surprise when the central government announced that Brazil’s public debt rose by almost R$93 billion from October to November. More than half of this amount comes from the interest that the government had to assume in order to continue financing itself and keep the public machine operating. In the penultimate month of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, public debt reached the highest value in Brazil’s history: R$ 5.87 trillion.
With this data in hand, Fernando Haddad’s tenure at the head of the Ministry of Finance begins to take effect from Monday. Known for being a responsible manager, the petista will be the center of attention in this start of the Lula III government, which was born with great social responsibility and even greater economic problems. Haddad’s interlocutors confirm the size of the challenge, but guarantee that the professor is prepared. But, more than that, the bet is that plurality within your ministry and in the adjacent portfolios (such as the Civil House, Planning, MDIC and Regional Development) will be necessary to find solutions that meet the complex demands that will be imposed on the throughout 2023.
+ Lula closes first echelon with MDB, PSD and União Brasil, but dislikes smaller acronyms
In the first quarter, Haddad’s plan is to proceed with structural reforms, with a focus on taxation. For that, he will have the political passability of Bernard Appy, who must lead such a movement. To attract private resources, Geraldo Alckmin must command the via sacra. Yesterday (28) the future Minister of Planning, Simone Tebet, guaranteed that she was in line with the assumptions of fiscal responsibility and said she was on the same page as Haddad. “We are both of Lebanese descent. You can’t go wrong,” she said.
But we know that everything can work out until it doesn’t. The wall faced by the former senator involves the developmentalist roots of the PT governments, which use the public machine as fuel for the engine of the economy. The practice, by the way, was only interrupted in 2016, when his caption colleague, Michel Temer, took over the presidency of the Republic after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.
It is still early to carve out the space and voice that Simone will have on her journey, but being aligned with Haddad is undoubtedly a good sign. On Monday, before announcing her entry into government, she met with the former mayor of São Paulo and Lula, precisely with the plan to set the record straight.
The market reacted well to Simone’s name, but it is still waiting to see what the emedebista’s real functions will be to understand the winds that should guide the new government. On Haddad’s part, the speech remains centered on not having big budgetary distortions or outlandish expenses. In a recent interview, he stated that it is possible to do more with the same resource, as long as it is better applied.
An example used by the transition team to show the inefficiency of the resource spent was the aid measures that the Bolsonaro government promoted. According to Lula’s economic team, which was headed by the elected vice president, there was a drastic relaxation in the rules that selected families to receive the benefit, in addition to not having counterparts. “There was a lot of money going out but total lack of control over where, how and to whom the money was going”. In 2021, there was no shortage of reports of misuse of social programs such as emergency aid.
To get around the situation, says Haddad, it is necessary to map Brazilians again. “We have to know who they are, where they are and what they need. It’s not just about money. You need to have a guarantee of school attendance, up-to-date vaccination card, work card taken out. The financial benefit is a part of a broader social program,” he said.
In theory the speech is perfect. In practice, it may encounter resistance within the very party that forged it. There is dissatisfaction on the part of some wings of the PT, especially the traditional ones such as trade unions of various categories, with what they define as a lack of representation in the new government. That kind of unrest can poison other wings within the party. Unless Lula, world champion of conciliation, manages to circumvent this potential fire focus.
#Haddad #doesnt #good #excellent