Mônica Bergamo: Lula says Mercadante is persecuted, makes defense and says he has changed

President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) came out in defense of economist Aloizio Mercadante (PT-SP), recently appointed by him to chair the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) and criticized by sectors of the financial and even among economists and political allies.

On Tuesday (13), the Stock Exchange fell 1.71% after Lula announced Mercadante as head of the bank.

A day later, the Chamber of Deputies passed a law changing the quarantine rule so that political leaders can take over the direction of state-owned companies.

The alteration was understood as tailor-made so that Mercadante could take over the BNDES, which generated new reservations to the nomination.

Lula showed opposition to the repeated criticisms of Mercadante.

In conversations with allies, he said that he is being “persecuted”, and that “they are putting into Mercadante’s account” things that are not the responsibility of the economist, such as the change in the law of state-owned companies.

In Lula’s understanding, the future president of the BNDES could assume command of the bank without the change in the rule, since he did not occupy a position in the PT’s leadership.

The president-elect claims that he did not even know that the changes would be made by the Chamber.

Lula accepts the analyzes that Mercadante was inept and made mistakes during the period in which he was minister of Dilma Rousseff (PT), commanding in succession the portfolios of Science and Technology, Education and Civil House, and being considered a strong man of her government.

But he says that he “changed” and that he now shows a much greater ability to exercise power in key government posts, such as the BNDES.

Mercadante distanced himself from Lula already in the first term of Dilma Rousseff, who took over the Presidency in 2011.

In the backstage dispute between those who defended her running for re-election and those who preferred Lula’s return, the economist sided with the then president.

After Lula got out of prison, however, the two got closer.

Mercadante chairs the Perseu Abramo Foundation, linked to the PT, and in this capacity he coordinated the formulation of Lula’s government program.

When disclosing his choice for the BNDES, the president-elect stated that Brazil needs someone who “thinks about development, who thinks about reindustrializing this country, someone who thinks about technological innovation”. And he said privatizations would “end”.

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_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS and MANOELLA SMITH}