After minister resignation, Bolsonaro says fuel prices are high worldwide

After the resignation of Bento Albuquerque as head of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said that the price of fuel and other items in general are high worldwide.

In a conversation with supporters this Wednesday (11), the Chief Executive once again blamed the health measures to contain Covid-19 enacted by governors and mayors for the situation of the country’s economy and avoided commenting on the replacement of Albuquerque by Adolfo Sachsida in the first echelon of government.

Officially, advisers to the now ex-minister say he resigned. Reports from Planalto advisers, however, claim that Bolsonaro was irritated by the latest diesel price adjustment, of 8.87%, which raised the price for truck drivers, one of his main bases of support that had been threatening to break with the government due to prices.

With the increase, the average price of fuel in refineries went from R$ 4.51 to R$ 4.91 per liter.

In the dialogue with supporters published on social media, however, the chief executive did not comment on the change in the ministry and said that some “unfairly accuse him” of inflation.

“The cost of living all over the world, food, fuel, everything went up in price. Brazil was one of the countries that least increased the price of things,” he said.

The president also asked a supporter what the price of fuel in Canada is and commented that the value is below that of Brazil. He makes the same comparison in relation to the price of picanha in both countries.

The representative stated that the economic crisis is all over the world and is not restricted to Brazil. “I just talked to a Brazilian who is in England and he talked about the cost of living there, including eating habits that were changed”.

Bolsonaro took the opportunity to criticize Minister Alexandre de Moraes’ decision to overturn an excerpt from the decree that reduced IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products) rates.

“When I cut IPI, for example, it would go up a lot, vehicles, motorcycles, white goods. It doesn’t mean that the IPI brought the price down, but it didn’t go up. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court dropped —STF no, Alexandre de Moraes — part of the [decreto do] IPI”, he said.

According to Planalto advisers, Bolsonaro spoke to Albuquerque on Tuesday (11) and he had resisted any kind of intervention in Petrobras’ pricing policy.

The president then decided to dismiss the minister. Bento’s relationship with Bolsonaro had been stressed for a long time and reached its apex in April, when the minister – to serve the president – agreed to remove General Joaquim Silva e Luna from the command of Petrobras by the economist.