I didn't understand.

One of President Dilma Rousseff's main advantages over her predecessor has been a greater degree of discretion and sobriety in her conduct and pronouncements. But this week, without losing her serious demeanor, she declared, in a joint interview with the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, and the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, that "the European Union can count on Brazil," implying that our country could provide economic aid to the crisis-stricken Old World.

I immediately began to ponder: how would she provide this aid? By using Brazilian reserves, which are, in truth, a protective barrier against possible repercussions of global difficulties? Worse, by using them to buy worthless bonds from Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy? Even worse, without possessing sufficient liquidity to alter the course of events?

China, which has amassed a fabulous US$3.180 trillion in foreign exchange reserves (as of September 30th) and, more realistically, could have intervened in the situation, chose not to. In other words, those who had the effective means to "help" the European Union by allying themselves with the EU's stronger economies, such as Germany and France, thought it over and refrained from doing so. And those who are not equipped to perform such feats are making half-hearted boasts, a gesture that does not bode well for Brazil's external image.

Initially, those who would lose out in the event of a Greek default would be the European banks holding the bad bonds. Therefore, no one is better positioned than the EU itself to find an effective solution to this serious problem, which could further contaminate other economies, having already affected a substantial part of Europe.

The priority duty that Dilma should fulfill is combating domestic inflation, which already exceeds 7%, in contrast to the meager growth of around 3% projected for 2011. There are several inflations, in fact: school tuition is at 8%, and supermarket prices are at 14%. All are trending upwards, due to the changes in economic policy that we have observed.

Little by little, they are putting into practice certain outdated ideas that Lula announced he had renounced in the famous "Letter to the Brazilians." The State is becoming increasingly interventionist. The BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) is becoming an instrument of a select group of companies that, under privilege, have everything to lose the impetus to truly prepare themselves to compete with transnational giants. Protectionism, outdated and bankrupt, is back, as exemplified by the 30% increase in the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products) rate for imported automobiles: this leads to technological sclerosis for automakers established here and price increases due to a lack of competition.

Dilma is playing an extremely risky domestic game and, on the international stage, let's hope she doesn't get infected by the immaturity and triumphalism of her predecessor. Looking seriously at domestic affairs, before inflation fully awakens, would be far wiser than spouting useless things abroad, losing credibility and getting nowhere.

*Diplomat, was leader of the PSDB in the Senate.