Coordinator of the presidential pre-campaign of (-RJ), the senator (PL-RN) says that he has spoken with the former president of the Central Bank Roberto Campos Neto and that, in case of victory in the elections, the new government intends to carry out new pension and labor reforms.
The pre-candidate’s government plan will be launched on March 30th, with guidelines for (especially the fiscal area), education, water security and indigenous lands, among other topics. According to Marinho, there will still be no indication of names to make up the future team.
Flávio has spoken with and told allies that he will soon announce the name of his Economy Minister, but Marinho said that there is no name chosen for now.
In an interview with Sheetthe campaign coordinator praised Campos Neto, considered in the market and among Flávio’s supporters as one of those considered to head the economic team in a possible new government, but highlighted that there is still no definition regarding the participation or not of the economist, today vice-chairman and global head of Public Policies at Nubank, as well as a columnist for Sheet.
“He is an extraordinary person, a great economist, a guy who would be very welcome on any economic team. But there is no such definition on the part of Flávio Bolsonaro. We are not worried now about making this nomination,” he stated.
Campos Neto told interlocutors that he does not intend to return to public office.
Other names have been discussed to form Flávio’s eventual economic team, such as the former secretary of the National Treasury, now chief economist at BTG Pactual.
“He’s a great name, he was an extraordinary figure in our mandate with President Bolsonaro. I particularly like him a lot. But, at the moment, Flávio doesn’t have in his head who will be the minister. He’s going to talk to a lot of people,” said Marinho.
Flávio has also spoken to former members of his father’s government. One of them is , who was an assistant to the former minister (Economy) and also minister of Mines and Energy.
Other names mentioned behind the scenes as campaign interlocutors are the former president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) Gustavo Montezano and the former president of Caixa Daniella Marques, who was also Guedes’ right-hand man in the Economy.
According to Marinho, the PL hired a consultancy, GO Associados, to support the organization of the government plan, work that began six months ago. “More than 90 people have already been interviewed, I initially listed 30, and over time we talked to a lot of people. There is practically the material we needed. Now, it’s the process of validation, compilation”, he stated.
The senator did not mention names, but said that the experts interviewed dominate different areas and signed a confidentiality agreement. To take ownership of the proposals, Flávio has a meeting with advisors and scholars regarding a specific topic every week.
Marinho avoided detailing points of the future government plan, but added that the campaign will address the need to carry out a new pension reform and revisit the labor reform.
“The model is bursting. I can only say that we will have to revisit Social Security. Labor Social Security has to be revisited, because the 2017 reform was mitigated by several court decisions. At the same time, it needs to be updated by technological innovations, by new forms of work that are growing”, he stated.
Experts defend the need to tighten retirement and pension rules to contain the growth of , whose . There are also those who see the change in policy promoted by the Lula (PT) government as a . Around two thirds of social security benefits correspond to the minimum, which since 2023 .
Marinho did not discuss the topic and did not answer whether changes to the minimum wage policy will be addressed in Flávio’s government plan. He only said that the new pension reform may involve parameters or even a change in model.
In the 2022 campaign, Guedes even discussed a question internally, as revealed by Sheet at the time. The idea would have been formally presented if Bolsonaro had been re-elected, but it had a negative impact on the electorate.
In the labor area, Marinho said that the plan must include proposals to modernize legislation. The topic of , which has been gaining traction in an election year, should be a debate to take place in Congress later this year.
On this subject, Flávio and the party did not agree on a position, but the coordinator —who is also leader of the opposition in the Senate— defended that any flexibility in working hours should be accompanied by compensation to companies, through the reduction of payroll taxes.
Marinho also stated that, if Flávio is elected, the new government must propose a new fiscal rule. “It is clear that we have to redefine fiscal parameters, because what exists is no longer a framework, it is a sieve. The way in which the expansionary fiscal policy takes place in Brazil is one of the main causes of this 15% per year interest rate”, he said, without detailing the possible design.
He also cited what he classified as Budget linking and indexing problems, that is, how much of the expenses are already stamped for certain purposes, without the possibility of management by the manager, and follow automatic correction rules. “I believe that we should make a new budget arrangement,” he said.
