Haddad attends lunch with bankers and hears request for ‘predictability’

Alongside presidents of major Brazilian banks, former Minister of Education Fernando Haddad, quoted as Minister of Finance for President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, heard requests for care with public accounts and more economic predictability.

Haddad represented Lula at an end-of-year get-together event promoted by Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks). He was received by the president of Bradesco, Octávio de Lazari Junior, and by the president of Febraban, Isaac Sidney.

At the table with him were the president of Itaú, Milton Maluhy Filho, of Santander Brasil, Mário Leão, of BTG Pactual, André Esteves, and of Caixa, Daniella Marques. President of Banco do Brasil, Fausto Ribeiro was not at the event, having remained in Brasília on an agenda with clients, and was represented by the bank’s financial and investor relations vice president, Ricardo Forni.

Among the PT’s plans is to form a partnership between Fernando Haddad and Persio Arida in charge of the economic area, in order to keep the party in charge of strategic decisions – but making room for the influence of a liberal economist in the formulation of public policies.

The double nomination would put Haddad in charge of the Ministry of Finance, which concentrates important economic policy decisions, while Persio would assume the Planning portfolio, which should be in charge of the Budget and also with discussions on State reform.

Haddad had already been holding talks with representatives of the financial market. The PT’s presence at the event has been seen as a kind of test for the former minister, who has already taken the lead in the betting pools of who will be the head of Lula’s economic team. He participates as a representative of the president-elect, who is recovering from a medical procedure.

BANK AGENDA IS NOT LINKED TO IDEOLOGIES, SAYS FEBRABAN

Speaking at the opening of the event, the president of Febraban stated that, “regardless of the government that leaves and the new one that will arrive soon, our obsession will be to persevere in the direction of banks acting as a lever for sustainable growth. is linked to the ideologies of our rulers; we are going to contribute to the institutionality and governance of the country”.

Sidney also stated that, “more than ever, it is necessary to look ahead” and that it is necessary to react to the immobility of a country that has been satisfied with little growth.

According to Isaac, it is necessary to find, with balance of accounts, the means to expand public investments and considerably expand the ability to attract private capital, “which is available and eager to dock here.”

He also stated that “Brazil needs to regain predictability”. For private capital to invest resources in long-term ventures, macroeconomic stability, long-term funding and sustainable growth are needed, said the executive.

“The rules of the game need to be established in a long-term perspective. Investment does not dialogue with institutional surprises, instability, clashes and political noise, lack of predictability and legal certainty.”

PETISTS STILL AWAITING A RESPONSE FROM PERSIO ABOUT JOINING THE GOVERNMENT

If the nominations of Haddad and Persio are right, the party’s intention is to announce both names at the same time to avoid a negative reaction from the market, which is resistant to Haddad and tends to be more receptive to the eventual appointment of Persio –who, in the However, he is still hesitant to accept a government post.

Despite the crowd, the doubts of PT members about a “yes” by Persio —member of the editorial board of the Sheetformer president of the Central Bank and BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), in addition to being one of the “fathers” of the Real Plan— makes members also bet on technical names within the PT itself.

Behind the scenes, it has also been suggested that, in the ministry, Haddad could have a management similar to that adopted by Antonio Palocci during the first Lula government —which would be seen as positive by the market— and more distant from that done later by former minister Guido Mantega, which is even more strongly rejected by the business community.

Haddad has already held conversations with members of the transition economy group on various topics, including the Transition PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution), a measure being negotiated by the elected government to increase spending on the new Bolsa Família, relieve the 2023 and honoring Lula’s electoral promises such as a real increase in the minimum wage.

One of the members of the group is precisely Persio, who is also close to the vice-president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB).

Haddad’s proximity to Lula grew after the election

Haddad had already traveled with the president-elect to COP27, the UN climate conference (United Nations), which was interpreted as a sign that his name is gaining strength to compose the new government. During the event, Haddad acted as Lula’s right hand man in different meetings, and the reports are that the ties between the two became even closer.

The former Minister of Education brings together two important characteristics for Lula: affinity and trust. Due to the importance he has for the president-elect, Haddad has also been cited as minister of other important ministries —such as Itamaraty, Education and Planning itself.

Haddad was the substitute for the former president in the 2018 election campaign, when Lula was prevented from being a candidate. Recalling that moment, he said in an interview with the Reuters agency that the former president would have chosen him as Minister of Finance in case of victory in the dispute. “This is not known, but before I was invited to be Lula’s deputy, I was invited by him to be finance minister,” said Haddad.

Professor of political science at USP (University of São Paulo), Haddad has a degree in law and, in addition to a master’s degree in economics, he has a doctorate in philosophy.

Among the different members of the party, there are those who question Haddad’s dialogue skills in negotiations. The most urgent proposal to be sewn with Congress is precisely the one that allows expenses outside the spending ceiling in the coming years – which has become an imbroglio for the party and has stalled amid articulation problems.

It is commented in the party that a better negotiator would be Alexandre Padilha, also quoted for the command of the Treasury and who is mentioned in the market as someone with a less ideological profile. He, in turn, is not unanimous in the acronym when the discussion is the command of the economic area.

Anyway, the composition of a team with names from the PT and others with a more liberal vision has already been tested in the transition itself and it is the party’s desire to maintain this logic during the government. In addition to Persio, the group André Lara Resende and PT Nelson Barbosa and Guilherme Mello coordinate.

In charge of articulation with Congress, Jaques Wagner demanded the name of the Treasury

Information has been circulating while the party itself has the diagnosis that the lack of a finance minister has caused damage to the elected government.

This Thursday (24), PT senator Jaques Wagner stated that the lack of a name to occupy the Treasury in the future government has been an obstacle to the advancement of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Transition, which seeks to make room for in the Budget so that Lula fulfills his campaign promises. The PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann, contested the speech and said that the problem is in the articulation of the party in the Senate.

This Friday, several representatives of the elected government – ​​among them, Jaques Wagner – will be in São Paulo to meet with Lula.

The suspense over the name of the commander of the economic area is added to other episodes that have left the market uneasy about the future Lula government. Speeches by the president-elect indicating an appreciation of the social and less attention to fiscal responsibility had a bad effect on financial agents and caused turbulence on the stock exchange.

In this scenario, Alckmin has taken the opportunity to reiterate that Lula’s previous administrations were marked by fiscal responsibility, but that the president-elect cannot fail to emphasize the importance of combating hunger and keeping the Bolsa Família (currently Auxílio Brasil) at R$ 600 .

Information has been circulating while the party itself has the diagnosis that the lack of a finance minister has caused damage to the elected government.

This Thursday (24), PT senator Jaques Wagner stated that the lack of a name to occupy the Treasury in the future government has been an obstacle to the advancement of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Transition, which seeks to make room for in the Budget so that Lula fulfills his campaign promises. The PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann, contested the speech and said that the problem is in the articulation of the party in the Senate.

The suspense over the name of the commander of the economic area is added to other episodes that have left the market uneasy about the future Lula government. Speeches by the president-elect indicating an appreciation of the social and less attention to fiscal responsibility had a bad effect on financial agents and caused turbulence on the stock exchange.

In this scenario, Alckmin has taken the opportunity to reiterate that Lula’s previous administrations were marked by fiscal responsibility, but that the president-elect cannot fail to emphasize the importance of combating hunger and keeping the Bolsa Família (currently Auxílio Brasil) at R$ 600 .

With Catia Seabra, Idiana Tomazelli, Alexa Salomão and Douglas Gavras