‘We tax little income and property’, assesses Mourão

Senator elected by Rio Grande do Sul in 2022 with 2,593,229 votes (44.11% of the valid ones), former Vice President Hamilton Mourão (Republicans) will serve on the Rio Grande do Sul bench of the National Congress for the next eight years.

With the flag of economic development, the reserve general defends the reduction of rates in a possible junction of taxes in the tax reform. Mourão defends the rebalancing between the taxes collected through services and those that tax income and property.

In this interview to Jornal do Comérciothe senator claims that he will also support Governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) in an attempt to recoup ICMS losses and believes that, despite the electoral defeat of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in his bid for re-election, the victory of Bolsonarism was to consolidate a right in Brazil.

Jornal do Comércio – What will be the focus of your work?

Hamilton Mourao – First, economic development, because only through economic development will we be able to generate jobs, quality and income for our population. Structural reforms are capable of getting the country out of the middle-income trap that we’ve been trapped in for 40 years: tax reform and administrative reform. And also the attraction of investments, especially for our State, which is another source of job and income generation. We have potential in wind power generation in the Rio Grande region and it has to be explored. It is a milestone for the future of the State. Another axis is related to social, education, health and public security issues.

JC – You even presented a bill at the beginning of your mandate.

Mourão – Yes, regarding the issue of Social Contribution on Net Profits (CSLL), there was a decision by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) making a retroactive charge, which is terrible for our people, and then we presented a bill to prevent this from happening. Let’s charge forward. Backwards, no. I believe that the project has a great chance of being approved.

JC – About the elections, to what do you attribute the electoral success in the race for the Senate?

Mourão – We faced two strong opponents, who were former governor Olívio Dutra (PT) and former senator Ana Amélia (PSD), a traditional figure in our state, who has a great image for having been a journalist, in addition to having worked here in the Senate. It was not a simple election, but we tried to present our proposals and place ourselves as an effective candidate for conservative and right-wing thinking in our state, which I believe is the majority. And in this work we had the invaluable support of President Bolsonaro and also of Comandante Nádia (PP) at the end of the campaign, and I think these were the main reasons for our victory.

JC – Do you believe that Commander Nádia’s move to give up her own candidacy to support him had an impact?

Mourão – I have no doubt. Despite being at the end of the campaign, Nádia has a significant group of voters in our state. She is another figure very dear to our field and, consequently, the fact that she supported us provided that “sprint” in the last days of the campaign. She has great potential, she will definitely reach higher heights.

JC – Was this movement already planned or was it something done at the last minute at the end of the campaign?

Mourão – It wasn’t planned. At that moment, Nadia had a gesture of moral greatness of understanding that she was far behind, but had a significant number of votes. And that significant number could be missed at the time of the final clash with Olívio, who, at that moment, was at the top, and we would hand over the election to the PT candidate on a platter.

JC – What do you think was missing from former president Jair Bolsonaro in the race for the presidency, which took away his re-election?

Mourão – President Bolsonaro was an extremely criticized man from the first moment until the last day of his government, always facing rains and thunderstorms, and always tried to face what had to be faced with pride. The pandemic happened at a time when the country was able to make some fundamental advances and these advances were stopped by the pandemic. And I have a clear view that the Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) were not impartial in the analysis of everything that was the campaign on our side. Always contesting many of the things that were happening, many of the things that could be said against the opposing candidate and that brought a certain damage in an election in which the difference was very small.

JC – Have you been talking to the former president? How is he now in this post-election period?

Mourão – When the president left Brazil, he sent me a message informing that he was leaving and asking me to sign some decrees. Since then we have had no further contact. He’s over there in America, I’m here, and we’re all waiting for his return.

JC – With Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat and the PT’s victory in the elections, what will be the future of the Brazilian right?

Mourão – I see that Bolsonaro’s great victory was putting the right on the map. Here in Brazil, no one called themselves on the right. People were very rare. Everyone was on the left, center-left, and in fact you can see that the right-wing movement is strong, I think it has never been as strong in our country as it is at the moment and there are leaders. Obviously, the first leadership is Bolsonaro, but we have others emerging there, who, over the next few years, will be able to present themselves for the 2026 elections and throughout that period make opposition in an organized way and without being angry against the PT government .

JC – Does a regional consolidation through parties like the PL and the Republicans help the right to maintain the conquered spaces?

Mourão – It is very important that these parties, the PL, the Republicans, the PP, which are right-wing, center-right, become increasingly stronger, because it is through the base that we can reach the top. This result of the elections for deputy, senator, which placed the PL with 99 deputies, our Republican party with 41 deputies. Now we have four senators in the Republicans, the PL has 12 senators. The PL today is the party that has the most resources from the party fund, so it has to take advantage of this moment to increase this capacity and the first moment will be for the election of mayor and councilor for 2024.

JC – In 2024, will Hamilton Mourão be a candidate?

Mourão – I see that our mayor (of Porto Alegre) Sebastião Melo (MDB) has been an extraordinary man, a skilled man. He wasn’t born in Porto Alegre, but he is from Porto Alegre committed to the city’s future and would love to be able to support him in a re-election campaign.

JC – How do you evaluate the acts that took place on January 8 and what do you think motivated the invasion of Praça dos Três Poderes?

Mourão – Those acts have to be treated as what they were: a demonstration without leaders – I’ve never seen a demonstration that didn’t have a sound car driving. It was a riot, because the moment people stop demonstrating peacefully and invade public buildings and destroy them, they are committing riots, acts of vandalism that must be dealt with in accordance with the law. I think the way this process is being conducted is an exaggeration, meaning that it was an attempted coup d’état. More “tabajara” coup d’état than this wouldn’t exist, right? Coup d’état has to have military force, has to have shots, has to have a bomb and none of that happened that day. So, there was a big riot here in Brasilia and, in my view, the federal bodies responsible for activating the security devices, that is, the Ministry of Justice, the Institutional Security Office, did not do so. They had intelligence data that said that this demonstration could lead to some kind of violence and they were not prepared, so they have to be investigated.

JC – What will the opposition to the Lula government be like?

Mourão – I am part of this opposition, but I have made it very clear that we are not equal with the way in which the PT makes opposition. The PT opposes Brazil when it is in this situation. Just analyze that they did not participate in the indirect election of Tancredo Neve, they even expelled the deputies who voted on that occasion, they did not sign the 1988 Constitution, they were against the Real Plan, that is: they make an independent systematic opposition if the ideas are good or not. I make it clear that I am opposed to the government, but I am not opposed to Brazil. That is, if the government is going to send a tax reform, an administrative reform, which meets our ideas, it will have our support. That is, it is a rational, objective, honest opposition.

JC – What do you think should be included in this tax reform?

Mourão – The question is complicated. There can be a very simple answer. We have a tax system that is complicated, it is a system that is expensive, it costs about R$ 80 billion a year for people and companies and there is evasion/evasion, that is, people who do not pay, of R$ 400 billion . It’s a lot of money. We tax services too much and tax income and property too little. So there has to be a rebalancing, a unification of taxes, it has to be a neutral reform – because we already have a tax burden that is practically a third of our Gross Domestic Product. There are no conditions to increase this load. Starting with a neutral reform and the main objective is, in my view, to reorganize and then lower the rates. In order to increase the base, reducing tax evasion and, with that, even improve collection.

JC – How do you evaluate the beginning of this new relationship between President Lula and the command of the Armed Forces?

Mourão – Not an auspicious start. The Armed Forces remained within their tripod of legality, legitimacy and stability. They did not get involved in any attempt to prevent President Lula from taking office or to contest the electoral process. No pronouncements were seen from active-duty officers, active-duty generals, and commanders in this regard. The premature change of the Army commander was not something that gave a good signal. However, the decision was taken, the decision accepted and the force, in particular the Army, continues with its work. It is important that President Lula respects in order to be respected and always understands that they are institutions of the State and not of the government.

JC – Speaking of RS, what are the issues dear to the State that you intend to defend?

Mourão – There was already a first moment with this issue of drought, which is what we have to solve definitively. I spoke with Governor Eduardo Leite to align our perceptions of which changes in legislation would be important so that we could retain more of the water that falls in abundance in the State in certain periods and not suffer during these periods of drought. The work done by our bench brought support of around R$ 400 million. The group of ministers going to the State is very important. And it is to seek to attract investments, to support the State’s initiatives in this sense, to improve our infrastructure of roads, railways, etc.

JC – What could this definitive solution to the drought be?

Mourão – What I see is the question of the bus. Having the capacity to increase the dams we have, especially in areas of environmental preservation, of permanent protection. This requires flexibility in both federal and state legislation and in some municipal legislation. The construction of cisterns, use of water trucks, guidance on better quality irrigation, both for large and small landowners. The state government has these measures mapped out, and we have to work together to make this happen.

JC – The states are struggling to recover ICMS revenues…

Mourão – I spoke with the governor and made myself available to support initiatives towards the compensation that needs to be given to the states for the loss incurred with ICMS.

JC – Do you intend to help with the articulations in Brasilia?

Mourão – The governor has my support.