Lula compares Petrobras to Jesus Christ and says that state-owned company was ‘crucified’

At an event with oil workers in Rio de Janeiro, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) again criticized Petrobras’ pricing policy and the escalation of fuel in Brazil this Tuesday (29th).

Lula said that the state-owned company is strategic for national interests and said that the company has been the target of “lies” in recent years.

These lies, in the former president’s view, would have penalized the company’s development, as well as all the company’s workers and directors, amid allegations of corruption.

Lula said that, like Jesus Christ, the oil company was “crucified” by “narratives” contrary to the actions carried out in the PT governments. “What they did to Petrobras was this. What they did to Petrobras was to crucify the most important company we had in Brazil.”

Lula, who leads polls of voting intentions for this year’s presidential elections, participated in an event with the FUP (Federação Única dos Petroleiros) at a hotel in Copacabana, south of Rio.

The meeting was marked by a succession of speeches that attacked Petrobras’ pricing policy and criticized the change in command of the state-owned company.

The president of Petrobras, General Joaquim Silva e Luna, received on Monday (28) the communication that he will leave the command of the company.

Silva e Luna will be replaced by economist Adriano Pires, current director of the CBIE (Brazilian Infrastructure Center).

“I don’t know this person. That’s why I’m not going to badmouth the guy who took over. But I saw, from the two pieces of news I read today, that he’s a lobbyist, and much more connected to foreign companies than to ours. of a select group of personalities who do not accept that the oil is ours,” said Lula.

The change of command at the state-owned company comes amid the escalation of fuel prices, which puts pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The surge in items like gasoline and diesel fuel was boosted in March by the economic effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Bolsonaro is expected to seek re-election this year and fears the impacts of the electorate’s loss of purchasing power. The president has been piling up criticism of Petrobras and has already defended changes in the state-owned company’s pricing policy.

When defining the values ​​at the refineries, the company takes into account the behavior of oil in the international market and the variation of the dollar.

It’s called PPI (Import Parity Pricing). This policy was implemented in the Michel Temer government (MDB).

A Datafolha survey indicated that 68% of Brazilians blame the government for the rise in fuel prices.

The event with Lula in Rio was mediated this Tuesday by the national president of the PT, federal deputy Gleisi Hoffmann.

Gleisi criticized the management of Petrobras in the Bolsonaro government, saying that the state-owned company is “in the hands of the market”.

In her view, the change of command at the state-owned company will not solve the problem of high fuel prices. Gleisi also called the company’s current pricing policy a “robbery” against the Brazilian people.

Other political leaders participated in the meeting, including federal deputy Marcelo Freixo (PSB-RJ), pre-candidate for the state government of Rio de Janeiro.

Freixo said that the debate about Petrobras is “about public interest”. The parliamentarian stated that, due to the high cost of cooking gas, poorer people are having to take the risk of making food with firewood.

“It’s a debate related to the lives of the poorest.”

State deputy André Ceciliano (PT-RJ), president of the Legislative Assembly of Rio and pre-candidate for the Senate, criticized the choice of Adriano Pires for the command of Petrobras. He called the measure “nonsense”.

Also present in the debate, José Sérgio Gabrielli, former president of Petrobras during the PT governments, said that “there is no large nation that abandons energy security”.

“Energy security means not only access to energy sources, but also the ability of the people to have access to them”, he argued.

In Gabrielli’s view, there is no need for “such high profits” in the company.

“To change the state-owned company’s strategy, we will have to face financial capital,” said the former president of the state-owned company in a speech addressed to Lula. “It will take a clear and open discussion even with these shareholders,” he added.

Petrobras considers that the current pricing policy is important to ensure the company’s financial health and avoid risks of shortages in the country.

Debate moves election race

The performance of the oil company and the cost of fuel became recurring themes of demonstrations by possible candidates for the Presidency of the Republic.

Asked during an event in Rio de Janeiro, former minister Ciro Gomes (PDT), who also intends to compete for the Planalto Palace, recalled that international price parity does not come from a law or a market logic.

“Brazil takes a barrel of oil for US$ 10, one of the lowest in the world, a conflict breaks out in Ukraine, the barrel exceeds US$ 100, and they transfer it to the people.”

If elected, he said that the oil company will revoke international price parity and replace it with a cost policy to bring profitability in line with foreign companies, at 6.5%.

“Bolsonaro specializes in clogging up with lies and deception what is his responsibility and which he does not exercise. Petrobras is ruled by the board of directors, in which the government, on behalf of the majority shareholder, says what is the company’s strategy. company.”

Former judge Sergio Moro (Podemos) considers the resignation of General Silva e Luna a “smokescreen”.

“The government fires Silva and Luna as a smokescreen against rising fuel prices. The drop in fuel prices depends on a serious economic policy and not on factoids.”

The communication team of the governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB), said that the toucan would not comment on the change of command at Petrobras.