[PEN-L:33075] Brazil: Meirelles for Central Bank, PSDB hacks delighted

[topp8564@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I have left the Tucanos? statements in literal form to give you a taste of the 
inane third-way language these guys use. It?s Blair via Portuguese (and now 
back) ? it?s horrible, almost as bad as the loans? I left out a few bits here 
and there. ?Thiago Oppermann


Tucanos [ie. social-democrats] praise the choice of Meirelles, but want him to 
leave the PSDB.

The official announcement that elected lower house member Henrique Meirelles 
(PSDB-Goiais ? social-democratic party of Brazil, Goiais state) will be the 
president of the Central Bank in the future PT government has drawn praises 
from Tucano congressmen this Thursday. 

Senator Romero Jucá (PSDB- Roraima), the government?s second-in-command in the 
Senate, said that the choice showed the PT had stopped dreaming and was now 
living with reality. ?The PT embraced [Jucá uses the affective term here, 
almost ?hugged?] reality. Until then the party had lived a sort of dream. To 
manage reality is much harder,? said Jucá.

The official announcement was made this afternoon by the president-elect, Luis 
Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The senator for Roaima also said that the fact that Meirelles had chosen to be 
elected with the PSDB showed a ?indentity of posture? and of the economic path 
given by the party. [Meaning: he brings strong character and PSDB econ policy 
to the  government.]

Senator Lúcio Acantara (PSDB- Ceará), president of the Economic Issues 
Commission and governor-elect in his state, said that the choice could not have 
been better.

?He [Meirelles] gave a demonstration that he knows how to negotiate with the 
market when he was international president of the Bank of Boston?, affirmed 
Alcantara, citing the fact that the future president of the Central Bank has 
occupied the international presidency of BankBoston.

?

Tucano sentar Eduardo Siqueira Campos (Tocantins), who is also part of the 
Economic Issues Commission also said that he would support the nomination. ?It 
is a good idea because he will be a good Central Bank president? said Campos, 
showing surprise at the choice of a Tucano by Lula. ?But this invitation was 
unimaginable because it shows much open-mindedness by the PT, as well as a will 
to get it right.?

For Siqueira Campos the other names quoted for the Central Bank position 
already signalled the continuation of the current policies of inflation targets 
with heightened interest rates and floating exchange rate conducted by the 
current president of the CB, Arminio Fraga.

Reactions were also positive in the lower house. The Tucanos, however, 
maintained that Meirelles should renounce his mandate and that he leave the 
party before taking up the position in the Central Bank. ?He cannot be 
affiliated because he will be part of government against which we are the 
opposition,? said the national vice-president of the PSDB, Alberto Goldman (Sao 
Paulo). ?A man who has the unreproacheable ethics necessary for the Central 
Bank surely will do this without making us ask.? [a bizarre statement whichever 
way you look at it!!!]

The PSDB position does not mean, according Goldman, that the party will oppose 
his nomination. ?He can be respected and supported?, Goldman declared.

?

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u43481.shtml



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