BRASILIA – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro changed his energy minister yesterday after repeatedly criticising fuel-price hikes by state-run oil company Petrobras, blamed for driving inflation that is hurting his popularity five months from elections.
Bento Albuquerque, who had been Bolsonaro’s energy minister since the far-right president took office in 2019, will be replaced by economy ministry adviser Adolfo Sachsida, according to a note in the government gazette.
The energy ministry said Albuquerque had stepped down for “personal reasons” after a meeting with Bolsonaro, though speculation swirled in the Brazilian media that he had been sacked.
The shuffle comes after Bolsonaro said today that Petrobras’s recent profits amounted to “rape,” and called on Albuquerque and the firm's chief executive, Jose Mauro Coelho, to stop it from increasing fuel prices.
Albuquerque and the energy ministry, however, had no direct role in price decisions by Petrobras, whose pricing policy is based on the international oil market.
Disregarding the president, Petrobras went on to hike diesel prices by an additional 8.9% Monday.
Bolsonaro has also repeatedly changed the chief executive at Petrobras, replacing Roberto Castello Branco in February 2021, then Joaquim Silva e Luna last April – in each case, after attacking the firm’s price increases.
The company only stoked Bolsonaro’s fury further when it reported a first-quarter net profit of $8.6 billion today, up 38 times from the first quarter of 2021.
Fuel prices in Brazil have increased more than 33% in the past year, according to official figures, driving annual inflation of more than 12% that is hurting Brazilians’ wallets.
Spiralling prices are a central issue as Bolsonaro seeks reelection in October, trailing leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) in the polls. – AFP, May 12, 2022
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