Lula is now trying to hire Mantega at Braskem after frustration with Vale

After the failed attempt to place former minister Guido Mantega in the presidency or on the board of directors of Vale, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is now studying the possibility of appointing him to the administrative board of Braskem, according to sources close to him. heard by Newspaper. The government is a partner in the petrochemical giant through Petrobras, with 36.1%, and there is the possibility that another large partner – Novonor (formerly Odebrecht) – will dispose of 38.3% of the capital it owns.

Mantega met on Wednesday afternoon (13) at Palácio do Planalto with the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, to discuss the matter, in a meeting that is not on the official agenda according to data collected by the People’s Gazette. Government sources point out that the former Minister of Finance was summoned the day before, Tuesday (12), coinciding with the audience of the president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, with Lula.

The mandate of 10 of Braskem’s 11 directors expires in April, including Petrobras’ four seats, all vacant as of next month, and Novonor’s. The terms of office of the president of the council, José Mauro Mettrau Carneiro da Cunha, and the vice president, Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, appointed by Novonor and Petrobras, also end in this wave.

According to an interlocutor of President Lula interviewed by Sheet, Mantega’s appointment now depends on bureaucratic procedures, with a two-year term in sight. Neither the Chief Minister of the Civil House nor Mantega responded to requests for comment on the possibility of his appointment to the Braskem board.

Lula tries to expand state power in companies in which the government is a partner

Mantega’s entry into Braskem could be part of the “rotation” strategy proposed by Palácio do Planalto for the boards of companies on which the government has a seat. Rui Costa mentioned this possibility when discussing the entry into the Petrobras board of a nominee from Fernando Haddad (Fazenda), adding that this would also be applied to other boards.

“We will do this rotation in other places, rotating people from one council to another. Even to provide oxygen to the boards of state-owned companies, we are going to do this rotation with some people. It is not exclusive to Petrobras, we will have to do this rotation in other councils too”, said Costa last Tuesday (12) at an event at Palácio do Planalto.

The search for a position for Mantega has been going on since last year, when Lula tried to be nominated for the presidency of Vale, facing resistance from the market and the strict rules for choosing the company’s president and board.

Lula defends Mantega, attributing injustice to the accusations that he was responsible for the economic crisis during the government of Dilma Rousseff (PT). The former minister, who commanded the Treasury from 2006 to 2015 during the PT administration, also held positions as head of Planning in Lula’s first term and president of BNDES.

Since last week, the government has been facing crises involving state-owned companies: the withholding of extraordinary dividends by Petrobras and the resignation of a Vale advisor, who denounced political interference in the company’s succession process.

Jean Paul Prates, president of Petrobras, admitted that the decision to withhold the resources was taken by ministers and Lula, provoking negative reactions in the market, which fears further interference in the company, whose largest shareholder is the Union.

At Vale, advisor José Luciano Duarte Penido denounced “harmful political influence” in the company, after Lula’s attempt to place Mantega in the presidency. Of the 13 directors, only Penido and Paulo Hartung were against the solution for Eduardo Bartolomeo’s succession as president of the company, keeping him in the position until the end of the year.