After autonomy, BC team should abstain from politics, says Haddad to CNN

Without mentioning names and situations directly, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, criticized this Friday (10th) the political position at the top of the Central Bank.

Haddad also stated that the major problem with the law that formalized the BC’s autonomy in relation to federal government interventions was that it was approved during the term of Jair Bolsonaro, which, according to him, made the transition between governments difficult.

“After the autonomy of the Central Bank was institutionalized in Brazil, not only the president, but the entire technical body, from the presidency down the BC, had to have adopted a posture of abstention in relation to party politics”, said the minister, who speaks tonight in an exclusive interview with CNN anchors William Waack, Daniela Lima and Raquel Landim.

“You shouldn’t campaign, you shouldn’t pronounce. This is how it is in the world: if a person has autonomy, he has changed his status. She stopped being a government employee and became an employee of the Brazilian state.”

Roberto Campos Neto, nominated by Jair Bolsonaro and current president of the Central Bank, was criticized for voting with a Brazilian national team shirt, a symbol of the former president’s supporters, and also for participating in a WhatsApp group that brought together former Bolsonaro ministers .

For Lula’s finance minister, the Bolsonaro government produced a “very difficult transition”, which “was not normal”, and, for that reason, it was not the best moment to approve the BC’s autonomy. Among the main changes, the law that gave independence to the autarchy separated the nomination of the president of the BC from the elected government.

“Perhaps this was introduced into the legislation at the worst time,” he said. “I did not defend [a aprovação da autonomia do BC] because I didn’t think the timing was right. How will you transition? How are we going to inherit? Tensions were so high, and they still are.”