Gaspari says Lula is too confident in his own abilities.
And he claims that one of his mistakes was running over Marta Suplicy with a bulldozer; now he will have to elect the "puppet" Haddad and "screw in the lightbulb."
247 - The absence of Marta Suplicy at Fernando Haddad's campaign launch party did not surprise columnist Elio Gaspari. By steamrolling the senator in São Paulo, who was the favorite in the race, Lula would have managed to outmaneuver himself. He will have all the work of electing the "puppet" Haddad and also "screwing in the lightbulb." Read more:
Lula's faith in his own abilities - ELIO GASPARI
Lula has boundless faith in his own abilities. He has already transformed defeated strikes into political victories. In 2008, he leveraged the weight of his presidency by urging the population to consume, at the height of the global depression. He was right and prevailed. Last January, he allowed himself to be swayed by the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, who seemed willing to ally with the PT in the October election, supporting the candidacy of former minister Fernando Haddad. Lula contradicted a part of his base and, above all, Senator Marta Suplicy. He steamrolled them with the "Genius Guide of the Peoples" and even orchestrated a triumphant entrance for Kassab at the PT's 32nd anniversary ceremony. A month later, the mayor nestled with the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party). He cemented his reputation as a strategist with a rare achievement: he outmaneuvered Lula, who was left with the burden of fighting for the election of a puppet candidate, even having to screw in the lightbulb himself.
When meeting with Minister Gilmar Mendes to discuss the mensalão scandal, including inappropriate comments about Supreme Court justices, Lula knew he was taking risks. He trusted in what he believed to be a reciprocal friendship. (Our leader and the minister have a serpentine affectionate relationship.) It turned out as it did. This self-confidence comes from a long time ago, from when, in the midst of a crisis, at the end of a meeting with businessmen, one of them asked him for an autograph, as he had promised it to his son.
In five months, two blunders, in cases where what he believed to be his infallible instinct prevailed. In the Kassab episode, it may have hindered his own party, nothing more than that. In the Gilmar Mendes case, it overflowed, and the meeting between the two only served to create a chaotic atmosphere at the Supreme Federal Court. Lula made his rounds of ministers without discussing the tactics with the defendants in the Mensalão scandal, or with their lawyers. He wanted to take the matter personally. At this point in his life, it's not to be expected that he will change, but he himself should ask himself if he isn't exaggerating. As he has already said: "When you think you're becoming the vanguard, you really become a disaster."
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During the election campaign, when one of his friends started spouting nonsense, he approached him, asking him to shut up. Furthermore, before resorting to personal management, he had sent an intermediary to offer a substantial sum of money to silence him.
When he is caught making a mistake, he blames others, preferably the press. Old colleagues insist that he is a megalomaniac who only believes in himself, a master at campaigning, but mediocre at administration.
He is Barack Obama, according to the book "The Amateur" (the e-book is priced at US$9,99), by American journalist Edward Klein, which shot to the top of The New York Times bestseller list.
The friend who was spouting nonsense was Pastor Jeremiah Wright. The money ($150) was offered by Eric Whitaker, who remains one of his closest personal advisors to this day.
Faith in the team is contagious.
The Finance Minister's chair, currently held by Guido Mantega, has had various types of occupants. There were those who spoke little (Pedro Malan and Octavio Gouvêa de Bulhões), two masters of the art of speaking to convey meaning (Delfim Netto and Mario Henrique Simonsen), and those who said things they shouldn't (Rubens Ricupero and Ciro Gomes). Minister Guido Mantega was in the first group, qualified for the second, and is now slipping into the third.
The other day, he demanded that the banks reduce interest rates by up to 40%, gave them a 30-day deadline, and stated: "I will collect. In another month, all of this has to be up and running." Mantega knows that's not how it's done, and if he does it that way, he's doing something else. He believes he can transform the ministry into a commission that gives orders to the market. Or, in a benign version, he believes he can give that impression.
Mantega did an exemplary job of calming down the banks during the interest rate debate, but he never made threats with targets and deadlines. The difference lies in the authoritarian detail. If the Finance Minister thinks he can dominate the financial market by threatening it in this way, one of two things will happen: either he won't succeed and will be discredited, or he will succeed and end up believing he's the king of the hill. Later on, the bill will come due. There was a time when the banks controlled the economic team; thinking that a model where the opposite occurs can also not work.