Bolsonaro accuses banks of adhering to the pro-democracy letter after Pix ‘beat’

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Thursday (28) that banks adhered to the manifesto of businessmen and members of civil society in defense of the Democratic Rule of Law, because the government gave them a “club” with Pix.

The day before, Bolsonaro had already minimized the document, calling it a “letter”, at the PP’s national convention.

“You can see, this business of letters to Brazilians, to democracy, the bankers are sponsoring. It’s the Pix that I hit them with, the digital banks that we facilitate,” the president told supporters in the playpen at Palácio da Alvorada.

“We are ending the monopoly of the banks. They are losing power. Letter for democracy… What threat am I offering to democracy?”, he added.

The chief executive also said that, at the time of the creation of Pix, an interlocutor came to defend a tax on the new transfer tool. “I said: no, there is no taxation.”

The pro-democracy text criticized by Bolsonaro is a response to the coup threats of the chief executive. As columnist Mônica Bergamo has shown, the “Letter to Brazilians and Brazilians in Defense of the Democratic State of Law” has already garnered more than 100,000 adhesions in less than 24 hours after being opened to the public.

The document, which began with the signature of 3,000 people, including bankers, businessmen, jurists, actors and several other personalities, will be launched at an event at the USP Law School, in São Paulo, on August 11th.

Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks) declared this Wednesday (27) the adhesion to a second manifesto, also in favor of democracy, but this one articulated by civil society organizations. In a note, the entity informed that the decision was taken by majority (that is, not unanimously).

Controlled by the government, Caixa Econômica Federal and Banco do Brasil took a stand against Febraban’s decision.

Bolsonaro’s thesis that bankers signed the manifesto in retaliation for Pix had already been publicized by the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, on Tuesday (26).

“If you make someone lose [R$] 40 billion a year to benefit Brazilians, it is not surprising that the injured party signs a manifesto against you”, said the minister, on Twitter.

Nogueira stated that institutions stopped collecting more than R$40 billion from Pix through transfers, which were charged.

He also said that the beneficiaries of the new system will also sign a “manifesto”, supporting Bolsonaro in the elections in October. Today the president is in second place in the polls of voting intentions. In Datafolha, Bolsonaro appears 19 points behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).