Increasingly angry and radicalized as criticism of his leadership of Brazil since the start of his third presidential term on January 1, 2023, mounts, Lula da Silva used a radio interview in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s Bahia state, to renew his attacks on his favorite targets: big businessmen. And in the furious tone he has used lately, he made it clear that he does not need to answer to the holders of economic power, whom he considers Brazil’s enemies.
“I don’t have to answer to any rich person in this country, or to any banker. I have to answer to the poor and the working people who need us to be careful and take care of them,” said Lula, who has made very aggressive statements against the business community, against the market and the financial system and, above all, against the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, appointed by former President Jair Bolsonaro and with a fixed two-year mandate ending in December, whom he accuses of sabotaging Brazil by not obeying the orders given to him by the head of state, since this body is constitutionally independent from the government.
Roberto Campos Neto is the target of almost daily attacks from Lula, who does not recognize the autonomy of the Central Bank, as established by the Constitution, and says he wants the president of this body to be subordinate to him. Lula was furious that the Central Bank did not reduce the interest rate at the meeting last week, as he demanded, and accused the actions of Campos Neto and the market of sabotage, but the truth is that the seven directors of the body who voted to maintain the authority of the Central Bank were not the only ones who voted to maintain the authority of the Central Bank. Interestingly, four of them were named by Lula himself, and all agree that they acted in a technical, not political, way.
“I have been with the president of the Central Bank appointed by Bolsonaro for two years, it is not right. What cannot be done is that a citizen, just because he has a mandate, is more important than the president of the republic. “- Lula said, even all sectors of the economy appreciate that Campos Neto, despite being a declared ally of Jair Bolsonaro, acted correctly, in a strictly technical way and made the decisions that the country needed to avoid a surge in inflation.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha (Correspondent in Brazil)
Source: CM Jornal
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