Lula attacks privatization of Eletrobras in Portugal – 04/24/2023 – Market

In a speech to Portuguese and Brazilian businessmen gathered in Portugal, President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) once again criticized the privatizations carried out by his predecessors, with emphasis on the sale of Eletrobras.

After stating that in the last six years the country sold assets “simply to pay interest on the public debt”, the PT criticized the salary increase of the former state-owned company’s administration.

“When this company was sold, the first thing the board did was increase their salaries, from R$60,000 to R$360,000 a month,” he said.

The president also attacked the remuneration of the company’s directors and classified the situation as an impudence that occurred in years of obscurantism.

“If you just want to see an absurdity, now I have to appoint a board member for this company. A board member of this company, to work once a month, earns R$ 200,000.”

The statements were made this Monday morning (24th), at the Portugal-Brazil Business Forum, held in Matosinhos, in the north of the Iberian country. The event was also attended by the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa.

The Brazilian president took the opportunity to repeat to the audience, made up of more than 150 businessmen from both countries, his complaints about the interest rate determined by the Central Bank.

“Our interest rate is very high. In Brazil, the Selic rate, which is the reference rate, is at 13.75%. Nobody borrows money at 13.75%. Nobody. Cheap money doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. . “The truth is that a capitalist country needs money, and that money has to circulate. Not just in the hands of a few, but in the hands of all.”

Lula also praised the partnership between Portugal and Brazil and the rapprochement between the nations.

In turn, Prime Minister António Costa reaffirmed that his country is available to help Brazil to unlock the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

“Brazil can always count on Portugal as a true spearhead for us to work towards the conclusion, as quickly as possible, of the central agreement between the European Union and Mercosur”, he said.

The Portuguese man also praised Portugal’s partnership with Embraer, with emphasis on the KC-390 Millennium project. In 2019, the Portuguese government ordered five of these cargo aircraft produced in Brazil.

The first plane was recently delivered to Portugal and will transport Lula, Costa and the entourage back to the Lisbon region, where the two heads of government are visiting the facilities of OGMA, an aeronautical company with a shareholding in Embraer.

“The KC-390 is just one example of how much we can do together. That’s why when we land, we’re going to witness the signing of a new protocol, now for adapting another Embraer aircraft to NATO standards, with project A -29 Super Tucano”, said Costa.

With the adaptation of fighter production to the demanding standards of the military alliance, the Brazilian company wants to export the aircraft to other European countries.

After the economic agenda, Lula also participates in the delivery of the Camões Prize for Literature to Chico Buarque.

The PT’s last official commitment in Portugal is a speech in Parliament, on Tuesday morning (25), a national holiday that marks the Carnation Revolution. The president then leaves for Madrid, where he has scheduled meetings with the king and the prime minister.