On the same day as the broadest pro-democracy demonstration under the management of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the government launched an offensive to trumpet economic measures with popular appeal and try to oppose the acts that took place in all 26 states and the Federal District.
In demonstrations on social networks, the president and the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, sought to highlight the drop in inflation in the month of July and the second consecutive reduction in diesel prices – news directly related to sensitive topics for the campaign of Bolsonaro for re-election.
The announcement of a R$ 0.22 cut in the average price of diesel at refineries was made by Petrobras in the late morning of Thursday (11), when the headquarters of the USP Law School, in Largo São Francisco, downtown São Paulo, was still occupied by thousands of people who demonstrated in defense of democracy.
After days of downplaying the summons, Bolsonaro spent most of this Thursday ignoring the events and treated Petrobras’ announcement as “a very important act on behalf of Brazil and of great relevance to the Brazilian people”.
The president made no mention of the letters read during the demonstration at USP for most of the day — dealing with the topic only at night, in his weekly live and on social media.
One of the letters, led by the university itself, was signed by more than 980,000 people and preaches the maintenance of the democratic rule of law and respect for elections. The document does not mention Bolsonaro, who has been threatening coup plotters and questioning electronic voting machines.
Minister Ciro Nogueira, in turn, was more incisive and said that the government was writing another letter at that time. “Letter to the Brazilian people: we are writing the letter that changes Brazil for the better. Cheaper fuel, lower diesel price!” he said.
Then, the Chief of Staff also mentioned the 0.68% drop in prices recorded in July, released by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) on Wednesday (9).
“Deflation, increased employment! Strong economy, strong democracy! Congratulations, democrat Jair Bolsonaro!”, wrote the minister.
Head of the economic team, Minister Paulo Guedes also sought to highlight the government’s economic achievements in a meeting with economists from managers and banks, such as Itaú, BTG, JP Morgan, XP Investimentos and Bradesco, among others. The meeting took place in São Paulo this Thursday and lasted just over four hours.
Interlocutors of Guedes claim that the meeting had been arranged for some time and has no relation to the acts that took place on the same day. Initially, the forecast was that the minister would be accompanied by a team of secretaries from different areas, such as the Treasury and the Federal Revenue, but on the eve of the trip Guedes said he would go alone to the appointment.
After the meeting, former Treasury Secretary Mansueto Almeida, now chief economist at BTG Pactual, told Sheet that the meeting was an exchange of ideas about the country’s economy after the Covid-19 pandemic, with emphasis on the capital market. The impacts of recent reforms, such as Social Security, and their role in facing the crisis were also discussed.
Privately, people present at the meeting reported that Guedes said he agreed with some economists’ concerns regarding the country’s accounts, but did not go into details about how the trajectory will go from now on.
According to these reports, the minister told the meeting that he did not subscribe to the promise to keep the payment of R$ 600 to Auxílio Brasil families from 2023, a decision already taken by Bolsonaro in the face of similar signals made by Lula. This is now one of the main sources of pressure on the accounts next year, due to the additional cost of R$ 52 billion.
The use of news considered positive in the economy to oppose the demonstrations comes after a series of attacks by the government to try to quell the rise in prices, one of the factors of greatest concern for the Bolsonaro campaign.
The president is in second place in the polls, behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
Bolsonaro has already changed the command of Petrobras twice this year, in an attempt to have greater influence on the company’s decisions on readjustments.
Under the new management of Caio Paes de Andrade, the state-owned company has already announced cuts in gasoline and diesel prices, with the justification that reference prices in the international market have stabilized at a level that allowed the reduction.
In the case of diesel, the drop in August alone is already at R$ 0.42. In gasoline, Petrobras announced cuts totaling R$ 0.35 in the price of a liter at refineries.
The president also supported the passage, in Congress, of a law that by force lowered state taxes on fuel and electricity. The measure contributed to the reduction of inflation in July, but has been contested by governors and has become the center of a legal battle in the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
On another front, Bolsonaro managed to implement a constitutional change to spend up to R$42 billion outside the spending cap in the middle of the election year, with the aim of boosting social benefits, whose payments begin this month.
On Thursday, Bolsonaro wrote that deflation was observed “thanks to the federal government’s constant policy of reducing taxes”, also citing the reduction of ICMS on fuel.
Despite this, as shown by the Sheet, economists estimate that inflation should remain under pressure until the eve of the October elections, in a situation that is still uncomfortable for Brazilians’ pockets. Official inflation has risen by 10.07% in the 12 months through July.
Later, when participating in a virtual way in a seminar on 5G technology, the Chief Executive praised Minister Paulo Guedes and said that Brazil is “one of the few countries with [Produto Interno Bruto] positive” this year. The government forecast is that the economy will grow by 2% this year.
He also repeated Guedes’ view that Brazil has recovered in a “V” from the economic problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his weekly broadcast on social media, Bolsonaro mentioned the acts criticizing signatories of the letters.
He said that the CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores), an ally of the PT, signed the text. The president said that the entity “is missing” the mandatory union tax. On the support of artists for the act, he said they are interested in the return of the Rouanet Law as it worked before his government.
“I believe that the ‘letter for democracy’, which was read in the PT’s micareta, had some of its pages torn, especially in the parts where they should repudiate support, including financial support, for dictatorships such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela,” Bolsonaro said. on Twitter in reference to the supra-partisan act.
The exaltation of economic achievements during the day is also opposed to the demonstration in defense of democracy signed by entities such as Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) and Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks).
Faced with isolation by the movement that involved several civil society actors, Bolsonaro invited himself to go to Febraban this week.
At least three of Bolsonaro’s interlocutors, from the economic and political areas of the government, sought out leaders of the federation’s top leadership to arrange a meeting between him and the bankers. The visit of the Chief Executive to the entity took place last Monday (8).
Collaborated with Ana Paula Branco
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