There is nothing unreasonable about renationalizing Eletrobrás.

Since the processing of Provisional Measure 1.031/21, concerning the privatization of Eletrobrás, then pre-candidate and now president Lula had already expressed his opposition to this absurd surrender of our energy sovereignty. His electoral campaign and government program already included criticisms of privatization and a commitment to "recovering Eletrobrás's role as the people's patrimony."

By electing Lula, Brazilians elected his government program and said no to the sell-out project that was in power. Moreover, Jair Bolsonaro himself had promised in his 2018 campaign that he would not privatize Eletrobrás. In other words, he betrayed the trust of his voters.

Even after privatization, Eletrobrás still has the Brazilian government as its main shareholder, holding over 43% of the ordinary shares. Thanks to a legal maneuver, the financial groups that orchestrated this criminal privatization were able to seize control of the largest electricity company in Latin America – valued at over R$ 400 billion – for less than 5% of its actual value.

Through a capital increase operation, without the participation of the Union, the magnates of the 3G group, the same ones involved in the billion-dollar fraud at Americanas, took control of Eletrobrás, even though they held less than 0,5% of the ordinary shares.

The most bizarre thing is that the company's privatization included a clause that sterilizes the Union's shares. According to this provision, no shareholder can exercise more than 10% of the voting power in the company, regardless of their stake. The justification was to prevent any single economic group from controlling the company. However, the only one harmed by this provision is precisely the Brazilian State, since it is the only one with more than 10% of the ordinary shares, while the second largest shareholder has less than 5%.

In practice, the 3G group, with less than 0,5% of the shares, has much more weight than the Union, which holds 43%. So much so that this group appointed the majority of the company's Board of Directors, as well as the main executive positions.

It was precisely because he criticized this absurdity that President Lula became the target of a coordinated attack by rentier sectors and the media. They claim that the privatization was approved by Congress and that it is therefore irreversible.

In fact, Eletrobrás was privatized through a provisional measure, which was processed at the height of the pandemic, without a single debate in the Chamber or the Senate and at the cost of a festival of distributing funds from the secret budget. However, just as Parliament approved the privatization, it can also reverse this disastrous measure and approve the re-nationalization of the company, before the 3G group does to Eletrobrás what it did to Americanas.

Contrary to what the voices of rent-seeking preach, there is nothing unreasonable about renationalizing Eletrobrás; quite the opposite. The world's major economies maintain a strong state presence in the electricity sector. All other BRICS countries have a state predominance in this sector. The same occurs in nations such as Sweden, Finland, Norway, Canada, South Korea, France, and even the USA, where hydroelectric plants are state-owned. The reason is simple: the energy sector is strategic for any nation that values ​​its sovereignty.

Furthermore, countries like Germany and Spain have been promoting a strong movement to renationalize their energy companies, and this is no coincidence. Energy is and will continue to be a fundamental pillar of any country's economy. To relinquish control of the energy sector is to relinquish any possibility of undertaking a sovereign development project.