The chairman of the board of directors of the retailer Magazine Luiza, Luiza Helena Trajano, 73, said this Wednesday (31) that she can no longer “be headlines” in the political field.
“This time, they invited me a lot to be [vice] president. Except Lula, of whom I became famous and became a meme, but he was the only one who didn’t invite me”, said Luiza Helena, during the event “Female Entrepreneurship in the Arab World”, organized by the Wahi Committee – Women who Inspiram, of the Chamber Arab Brazilian Trade Center in São Paulo.
Questioned by Sheet if she would have liked to have been invited by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to be his deputy –a place now occupied by the former governor of São Paulo Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), a name closer to the business community–, Luiza Helena said no. .
“For God’s sake, I can’t take it anymore [ser] headline. I am a political person, but not a partisan. No, I don’t want to get into politics. I didn’t join any party. The pressure was too heavy [para eu me filiar]”, he replied. “I came out of an unnecessary exhibition, I don’t want to go into another one. I am tired. The headlines are hurting.”
Luiza Helena claims to be a political person for not being “quiet” in the face of the causes she believes in. But her commitment is with the Women of Brazil Group – which she founded in 2013, with the aim of engaging civil society in achieving improvements for the country.
Today the group has 115 centers in Brazil and 36 worldwide. A new nucleus is being formed in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where she participated in a business fair this year.
Women of Brazil created the movement “United for the Vaccine”, in order to speed up, with the participation of the private sector, the distribution of immunizations against Covid-19 throughout the country.
Now the group has created the “Pula para 50” movement in order to increase the female presence in politics, with the goal that women reach at least 50% of the seats in Congress. The group highlights that women represent 53% of the Brazilian population, but they are only 15% in the federal legislature.
Socialism and Forbes List
“If being a socialist is going to take care of social inequality, I’ve been doing it since I was 10 years old”, says she, who was also uncomfortable with the exposure of her name on Forbes’ list of the richest, which showed the rise and fall of the actions of the Magalu.
“Man goes in and out of the Forbes list, nobody writes anything. I go in, the whole Brazil knows. I go out, the whole Brazil finds out”, she says.
In September last year, the Brazilian edition of the American magazine Forbes brought the list of the country’s 200 billionaires in 2020. Luiza Trajano appeared in 8th position, being the richest woman in Brazil, with a net worth of US$ 5.6 billion in July of 2021 (about R$ 29 billion, in current values).
In June this year, the magazine reported that the businesswoman’s equity had dropped to less than US$ 1 billion (R$ 5.2 billion today). The exit from the list of the richest follows the negative performance of Magazine Luiza on the Stock Exchange, a reflection of the current Brazilian economic scenario, marked by inflation and high interest rates.
At halftime, Magalu’s share went from R$24 to R$2.55. Today it is around R$ 4.50.
Cup helps despite the election
About the economy, Luiza Helena says that the second semester in an election year is not usually good. “But this year we’re going to have the World Cup, which comes in November, after the election, and I believe we’re going to end the second half better than the first,” she said.
According to the president of Magalu’s council, the first eight months of the year were full of ups and downs. “Post-Covid inflation hit the whole world. And Brazil had to adjust its inflation rate with interest. We still don’t understand the size of the mark that Covid left, poverty grew all over the world.”
For the businesswoman, retail growth this year will be lower than in 2021, “which was spectacular”. “Last year, we grew three, four times. But this year will show a smaller growth, as expected.”
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