Taxing the super-rich should give Haddad breathing space on the left – 03/02/2024 – Panel

The proposal made by Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) at the G20 meeting in São Paulo, last week, to tax the super-rich, should improve its position among left-wing sectors that turn up their nose at the discourse of fiscal austerity. The idea is popular in progressive sectors, and not just in Brazil.

With this, Haddad repeats a move frequently made by President Lula (PT): reinforcing the defense of left-wing agendas in foreign policy, which provides compensation for the PT base, dissatisfied with excessive moderation and alliances with the center and the right.

The minister is a frequent target of criticism within the PT. In December, the party approved a resolution in which it argued that “Brazil needs to free itself from fiscal austericide”.

“Look, it’s curious to see the cards that are being released by my critics about the economy, now on the occasion of Christmas. My name doesn’t appear. What appears is like this: ‘Inflation fell, employment rose. Long live Lula!’ And Haddad is an austericide”, said the minister in an interview with the newspaper O Globo.

“It is not possible to celebrate the stock market, interest rates, exchange rate, employment, country risk, GDP that Canada passed, all these things, and simultaneously have a resolution that says ‘everything is wrong, everything has to change'”, continued the minister.

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