By Célio Yano
Former Minister of Education and former mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad was announced this Friday (9) by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) as the chosen one to head the Ministry of Finance for 2023, confirming speculation around his nomination in recent days.
“I made the decision to choose Fernando Haddad as Minister of Finance. He has the task of having a few days to assemble his team and start showing results before we take office,” said Lula da Silva.
The president-elect was questioned by journalists about the profile of the Minister of Planning, who has yet to be appointed. “The profile of the Ministry of Planning will be the profile of a guy who is able to take care of the Ministry of Planning, the Budget, and is very in tune with the Ministry of Finance. It is necessary that they work together, that they think together, so that there is not too much disagreement between the two ministries,” he said.
Lula da Silva said he does not believe that the ceiling-breaking PEC – called the Transition PEC by the elected government’s office – will face difficulties in the Chamber of Deputies, which next week should analyze the text approved by the senators. The president-elect said he would hold “as many conversations as necessary” to secure a large majority like the one obtained in the Senate.
“I hope people understand that this PEC is not for the Lula da silva government, it is to repair President [Jair] Bolsonaro‘s budget, and to guarantee the minimum necessary for the most needy people, for health, for Minha Casa Minha Vida, for Farmácia Popular and for us to start taking care of the Brazilian people”, said Lula da Silva.
Haddad met on Thursday (8) with the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes. On his way out, he said that during the meeting “important issues” were discussed, and that a work agenda was defined between the two starting next week.
At the end of November, at an event held by the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), as Lula da Silva’s spokesperson, Haddad said that tax reform will be a “total priority” for the new government, mentioning the proposed amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 45/2019, which is pending in the Chamber of Deputies.
In addition, he questioned the quality of public spending in recent years and said there was “disorganization” in federal programs. Although he said it was more prudent to deal with a possible new fiscal anchor only from 2023, he criticized the current rule that limits expenditure growth. “The spending ceiling, although reputed as what ensured that inflation would not return, failed to inhibit the worsening of public spending,” he said.
HADDAD’S ACADEMIC TRAJECTORY REVEALS ADMIRATION FOR MARX’S IDEAS
Haddad gained national prominence when he headed the Ministry of Education (MEC), between 2005 and 2012. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law, a Master’s in Economics and a Doctor in Philosophy.
Long before entering public life, he was an investment analyst at Unibanco in 1986 and, in 1988, a consultant at the Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas (Fipe), where he devised the Fipe Table, used as a reference for calculating used car prices on the market. insurance and IPVA taxation.
From 2001 to 2003, he was Undersecretary of Finance and Development for the City of São Paulo, under Marta Suplicy (Solidariedade, PT at the time). He left office after being invited by the then Minister of Planning, Guido Mantega, to join the portfolio’s technical team, as a special advisor, to help structure the Law on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Despite his passages through positions linked to the economy, part of the financial market’s aversion to his name as minister is related to his theoretical defenses. Currently a licensed professor at the Department of Political Science at University of São Paulo (USP) and at Insper, Haddad reveals in his academic career that he is an admirer of Karl Marx’s theses.
His master’s thesis, defended in 1990 by the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting at USP, approaches the socioeconomic structure of the Soviet system, according to him, under an “alternative interpretation”. The doctorate in philosophy was obtained at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of USP with the thesis “From Marx to Habermas – Historical materialism and its adequate paradigm”, in 1996.
In 2019, as a columnist for the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo”, he cited Marx to defend a banking reform amid data on the mismatch of the spread practiced by financial institutions in Brazil in relation to countries such as the United States and Uruguay.
“Marx defended the creation of a national bank that would radically democratize access to credit, allowing workers to cooperatively acquire the means of production, freeing them from domination”, says an excerpt from the text. “I saw in the credit system, and not in state ownership, a transition path to socialism.”
Member of the PT since 1983, While still studying at the Largo de São Francisco Law School of the University of São Paulo (USP), Haddad was treasurer at the XI de Agosto Academic Center and, the following year, became president of the student body.
In 2007, in a profile in the newspaper “O Globo”, he was defined by PT internal sources as “too left-wing in ideas, and too toucan in actions”.
HADDAD’S PASSAGES THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND THE CITY HALL OF SÃO PAULO
After serving as advisor to the Ministry of Planning, in 2004, he became executive secretary of the MEC, and in the following year he was appointed minister, succeeding Tarso Genro.
Under his management, the Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation (Pibid), the Unified Selection System (SiSU) and the Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) were created, the University for All Program (ProUni) was implemented, the Open University of Brazil and the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology, and expanded the Higher Education Student Financing Fund (Fies) and the National High School Examination (Enem).
Problems with carrying out the exam, however, left stains on his passage through the MEC. In 2009, there was a leak of the test, which ended up being postponed for the elaboration of a new test. In 2010, a small amount of tests (about 3,500 tests out of 4.6 million) had printing problems, which required a new application for the affected students, generating new attrition. In 2011, 14 questions of the test were canceled for 600 students from a school in Fortaleza who had early access to the statements.
He left office to run for mayor of São Paulo, under the blessing of Lula da Silva, who at the time enjoyed high levels of popularity – two years earlier, he had made Dilma Rousseff (PT) his successor in the Planalto. In his first electoral dispute, Haddad won the election against José Serra (PSDB) in the second round, with 55.57% of the valid votes.
In his administration, he created the Comptroller General of the Municipality (CGM), which revealed the scandal of the “ISS mafia”, in which inspectors gave discounts on certificates of works in exchange for bribes. He also renegotiated the City Hall’s debt with the Union, with a reduction of around 40%, falling from R$76 billion to less than R$30 billion. As a result, the municipality achieved investment grade from the Fitch Ratings agency in 2015.
However, the economic crisis and the growth of anti-PTism due to the corruption scandals revealed by Lava-Jato, in addition to the prioritization of alternative modes of transport, led to an image crisis for the then mayor. At the end of his mandate, 48% of São Paulo citizens considered the management bad or terrible, according to a survey by Datafolha.
When trying for re-election, Haddad obtained only 16.7% of the valid votes and ended up defeated in the first round by João Doria (today without a party, at the time in the PSDB), then new to politics, who obtained 53.29%.
DEFEATS IN DISPUTES FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SÃO PAULO
In 2020, Haddad was chosen by PT to replace Lula da Silva in the presidential race after the former president was convicted and arrested, being prevented from running based on the Clean Record Law. With the party’s insistence on keeping Lula da Silva as a candidate until the very last moment when trying to reverse the Electoral Court’s decision, Haddad’s name was announced only in September, a month after the start of the campaign.
This movement, added to the wear and tear caused by the former president’s arrest, meant that Haddad was called Lula da Silva’s “pole” or “shadow” by opponents. Despite reaching the second round of the 2018 elections, he ended up defeated by Jair Bolsonaro (PL, at the time in the PSL), by 55.13% to 44.87% of the valid votes.
His most recent electoral dispute was in the October 2022 elections, when he lost the São Paulo gubernatorial race to Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas (Republicans). Bolsonaro’s former Minister of Infrastructure obtained the support of 55.27% of the electorate, against 44.73% of Haddad.
With information from Gazeta do Povo