Mother Joana's house?

Aside from isolated acts of displeasure, such as that of Vice President Michel Temer, who canceled his attendance at an event promoted by the bank in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian government has so far not adopted any sanctions against Santander, the Spanish bank that attempted to interfere in this year's presidential elections in Brazil, warning its wealthy clients, through a letter, about the danger that the possible re-election of President Dilma Rousseff would represent for the economy. "If the president stabilizes or rises again in the polls," the Santander letter states verbatim, "a reversal scenario could emerge, the exchange rate would depreciate again, long-term interest rates would rise again, and the Bovespa index would fall." In other words, economic chaos.

During an interview, President Dilma Rousseff merely described the Spanish bank's letter as "inadmissible" and "unacceptable," without suggesting any sanctions for the undue interference. Is there no legislation in our country that could address the foreign bank's actions in a way that would justify legal action? If not, the Presidential Palace urgently needs to arrange for the passage of a law in Congress capable of curbing the partisan political actions of foreign institutions; otherwise, Brazil will become a free-for-all where everyone feels entitled to meddle.

Incidentally, it is surprising that the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) presidential candidate, Aécio Neves, supported Santander's stance. This position is already a harbinger of what could happen in a potential PSDB government: bankers, including foreign ones, will once again have absolute power in our country, as happened during the FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) administration. In turn, columnist Merval Melo, who has revealed himself to be a fanatical oppositionist, also approved of Santander's action. In his opinion, the government cannot "interfere in a private company, preventing it from expressing its opinion on the country's economic situation." However, it wasn't an opinion about the economy, but about the election, with clear opposition to the President. Nor was there any government interference in the bank.

Now, imagine if a Brazilian bank, with a branch in Madrid, dared to comment on the Spanish elections, revealing its preference for one of the candidates? I doubt that the Spanish people, including journalists, would approve of such interference in their country's internal affairs. In Brazil, however, we are already getting used to seeing bad Brazilians, like Merval, acting against their own country, as happened during the World Cup, when they rooted for the event's failure. I even think they celebrated the German thrashing of our national team, setting off fireworks and eating barbecue, while true Brazilians suffered the humiliating defeat.

The president of Santander, Emilio Botín, faced with the negative repercussions of his bank's letter to high-income Brazilians, apologized to the government, blaming an analyst for the incident and promising to fire him. Who believes this? If what the president said is true, the bank reveals a lack of organization, as it allows an employee without a degree to take such an action, in the name of the institution and with such repercussions inside and outside the country, without the knowledge of his superiors. The damage, however, has already been done, with losses for the bank itself: the mayor of Osasco, São Paulo, suspended the agreement that authorized the Spanish bank to collect the municipality's taxes and fees, amounting to R$ 1,9 billion annually.

In any case, looking on the bright side, Santander's attitude served to expose its true colors in relation to President Dilma Rousseff's government (until then, the president of the Spanish bank posed as a friend during his visits to the Planalto Palace) and also the position of the PSDB candidate Aécio Neves in relation to bankers. There seems to be no longer any doubt that, in the event of a PSDB government, bankers will once again be the most privileged class in this country, where only under Lula's administration did the poor begin to receive attention. And thanks to this Santander episode, it's not difficult to see that all resources are being used by the President's adversaries to prevent her from remaining in office.