The resignation of Bento Albuquerque from the Ministry of Mines and Energy has signaled a crisis in the government with the stalemate in Zaire Bolsonaro’s campaign.
Albuquerque surprised Bolsonaro on Monday. When he left Palacio do Planalto, he was already “released on request.” The announcement of his resignation in the Official Gazette and his successor Adolfo Saksida, a lawyer, economist and sympathizer of the far-right Bolsonarista ideology, remained to be seen.
The former minister, former commander of the submarine force and director of the Navy’s nuclear program, is a true representative of the military elite, whose anti-PT movement supports Bolsonaro’s 2018 election.
His resignation reflects a conflict of interest that has strained relations between Bolsonaro, his family and the upper echelons of the armed forces – a government of the lower clergy, as some have defined it.
Before leaving, Albuquerque tried to balance an agenda of virtually impossible decisions during the election season. For the government, it was able to overcome the most severe drought of the last nine decades without much fuss.
Only one bill remained to be paid, and Brazil is already one of the most expensive energy countries on the planet.
However, these shipments from the water crisis, which had an estimated R $ 40 billion in a bakery account. It has doubled, in some cases tripled, the average price of electricity bills in the last year. In March, companies introduced a new addition for consumers with an average increase of 20%.
At the same time, fuel prices have risen, accounting for more than two-thirds of what Petrobras imports, which pays in dollars and sells in Riyadh.
For a two-tier government (11% inflation, 12% unemployment and 12.7% interest), the increase in electricity and fuel bills means an electoral problem for candidate Bolsonaro, whose poll has received record rejections (about 60%).
The government was held hostage and did not know what to do, especially when it came to fuel inflation. He literally hated the option of creating a fund to compensate for the price of oil derivatives, which turned one year without progress in Congress in April.
Bolsonaro chose to hand over the leaders of the Center, the head of the Civil House, Ciro Noguira, and Arthur Lira, the mayor, to build a way out of the crisis.
For electric power, the chamber has assembled a version of the capital project of the state-owned electric power holding company Electrobras. It has created a new bill for consumers, approximately one hundred billion races, which will be paid for the next two decades.
Most of this money will be used to finance the construction of the pipeline – disputed, away from the gas distribution center. Great and lucrative business for specialized contractors, questionable for energy policy and very expensive for consumers.
Since the beginning of this year, Palacio do Planalto has been discussing where the funding will come from. The “pre-salt” fund was the answer found, for example, in the Civil House.
This means raising funds for some projects already in place, financing them with oil exploration resources, and transferring them to new gas pipelines.
The preferred target was the Navy’s program to build nuclear submarines. It costs only one billion races a year, and last year it dropped 49%.
It is a technological adventure with an expected outcome in 2029, when it was intended to launch the first conventional submarine with the Brazilian nuclear propulsion (codenamed SN-BR).
The response of the then Minister Albuquerque, career submariner. He tried to negotiate, but in this naval battle he was torpedoed by Bolsonaro, Ciro Noguira and Arthur Lira, others interested in new frontiers of business with gas pipelines.