Analysis: Bolsonaro plays for the crowd or wants Petrobras an accomplice in crime

​Jair Bolsonaro foamed with anger when Petrobras decided to make a massive fuel readjustment in March. Since then, he wanted Silva and Luna’s heads. In addition to quelling his anger, what can he achieve with the appointment of the company’s third president in three years and three months of government?

First, play for the crowd. According to this month’s Datafolha poll, 68% of the electorate say the Bolsonaro government is responsible for fuel increases. Maybe Bolsonaro wants to save some votes by saying that he “tried”, but that the “system” won’t let him work.

In order to make the dismissal pay more, which results in an intervention in prices, for example, you would have to commit some crimes and misdemeanors. More than that, he would have to convince the company’s new management to be complicit.

The new president of the company will be Adriano Pires, professor at UFRJ and founder and partner of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure. For most of his career, he advocated “liberal” policies, in short. In recent times, he has been a bit of a lobbyist and consultant for companies and very illiberal interests. Still, he would have to deny much of what he preached during his life to do what Bolsonaro wants. Aside from the risk of lawsuit.

Bolsonaro wanted to appoint Rodolfo Landim, president of Flamengo. But Landim did not want to stay in the company’s day-to-day activities and, according to rumors in the Planalto, it would be necessary to put a “technical” name in charge. “Technical”, “liberal” or not, Pires must comply with the oil company’s laws and statutes.

The State-Owned Companies Law prohibits various interventions in the company. In practice, Petrobras has to be managed almost like a private company, apart from the occasional minor and explicit imposition of the law.

Any deviation from the “normal course of business”, such as selling products at prices below the market price, would have to: 1) be defined in law, regulation, provided for in some kind of public agreement with the federal government (in this case) ; 2) “have their cost and revenues broken down and disclosed in a transparent manner, including in the accounting field”.

The statute of Petrobras’ fuel trader says that “if the obligations and responsibilities to be assumed are different from those of any other private sector company operating in the same market”, Petrobras must reimburse the trader for the loss.

If Petrobras does such a thing, it will have a problem with minority shareholders, to begin with, and with the Corporation Law. But let’s go. One might say that this is legalistic speculation. After all, Bolsonaro promised to strike a blow in the election and left it at that.

The government could change the company’s statutes. It can do more, even complying with the State-Owned Companies Law, which provides for “the achievement of public policy objectives”.

Has the Bolsonaro government done anything in this regard? Do not. Is it complicated to do such a thing? IT’S. Article 90 of the State-Owned Companies Law reads as follows: “The actions and deliberations of the controlling body or entity [União, no caso] cannot imply interference in the management of public companies and mixed capital companies subject to it (…)”.

In addition, by putting his hand in the company again, Bolsonaro increases the company’s financial costs, “everything else constant” (whoever is going to lend money to Petrobras or buy its shares will put the risk of a government “bit” in the account of the price ).

Slightly, the problem is contagious, it affects the “business environment”. This is a country where the government can arbitrarily try to take the profits. It is not encouraging for those who want to invest in refineries, for example.