BRASÍLIA (AFP) – Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras is once again in crisis: caught in a political tug of war over rising fuel costs.
Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, seeking re-election in October, is widely blamed by voters for double-digit inflation, polls show, on the back of skyrocketing fuel prices.
Feeling the heat, Bolsonaro last week fired Petrobras chief executive officer Joaquim Silva e Luna, saying the petrol price was “unaffordable” and amounted to a “crime” against Brazilians.
Tied to international market movement, fuel prices in Brazil rose 33 per cent in the past year even as the economy recovers from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to a spike in crude prices in recent weeks, adding to the pressure.
“Manipulating tariff policy is like manipulating the law of gravity,” Silva e Luna said after his firing last week.
Inflation in Brazil, meanwhile, rose more than 11 per cent in a year, and opinion polls show that three-quarters of Brazilians blame Bolsonaro for their thinning wallets.
Bolsonaro’s main rival, leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has also vowed to “Brazilianise the fuel price” – meaning to adapt it to the reality on the ground.
Former trade unionist and popular ex-leader Lula is the polled favourite ahead of October’s vote. With the fuel price in both men’s crosshairs, the future of Petrobras – which determines the price of petrol at the pump – depends very much on the outcome of October’s elections.
The company has hardly had time to settle after the 2014-2021 Operation Car Wash corruption probe that saw several top politicians and business executives convicted for embezzlement of billions of dollars from the oil giant.
