Mourão says that Silva and Luna, ‘like a good northeast’, can handle pressure at Petrobras

Vice President Hamilton Mourão said this Monday (14) that General Silva e Luna, from Petrobras, can handle the pressure, “like a good Northeasterner”.

The president of the state-owned company is being criticized and pressured in office, after carrying out a mega-increase in fuel prices, due to the war in Ukraine.

“Silva e Luna is resilient, always has been. As a good Northeasterner, he can handle pressure,” Mourão told reporters. The general is from Pernambuco.

The vice president said he was following the fuel issue and that the government is looking for solutions, such as reducing PIS/Cofins.

But he criticized intervention in the price of the state-owned company, as suggested by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) last week.

“Price intervention is something that, we know how it starts and the end is always a mess”, he said.

Over the weekend, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said that anyone can be replaced in the government, when asked about the possibility of the general leaving office.

Bolsonaro also avoided adjectivizing the management of his nominee to Petrobras, saying only that Silva e Luna is “investing in the medium and long term”.

The president also fired against the adjustment of Petrobras, and said that the company shows no sensitivity to the population.

“It’s Petrobras Futebol Clube and the rest is blown up,” he said.

Pressure from Petrobras shareholders for readjustments and the fear of shortages expressed by company members and politicians in the Northeast triggered the state company’s decision to announce a mega-increase in fuel prices.

The readjustment was granted after almost two months without passing on to the pumps the rise in international oil prices.

Government officials told the sheet that the president was upset with the decision of the state-owned company to announce the adjustment precisely on Thursday, the date of the vote on the project that was the government’s bet to contain prices at pumps.