🛶 Cabinet castaway

POLITICS

The gulf between the finance minister and his party

When Finance Minister Fernando Haddad announced a financial transactions tax (IOF) hike a week and a half ago to patch up budget shortfalls, he expected political backlash. What he didn’t expect was public criticism from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself.

Speaking at an event on Sunday, Lula scolded unnamed officials — widely interpreted as a rebuke of Haddad — for announcing sensitive economic measures without proper consultation. “When we want a decision to be unanimous among all stakeholders,” Lula said during a meeting with lawmakers. “The government must learn that we don’t take the decision first and then communicate it. We call people in to decide with us.”

It was a rare and public dressing-down of one of Lula’s most loyal cabinet members.

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