BRASILIA, Nov 15 (Reuters) – A dust-up among aides to Brazil’s president-elect over the country’s choice to lead the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is fueling concern that hardcore leftists on his team are eclipsing the influence of more market-friendly moderates.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eked out a narrow election victory last month after assembling a coalition of pro-business center-right politicians and long-standing members of his leftist Workers Party (PT).
As his transition team begins its work ahead of the Jan. 1 inauguration, investors are wondering which group will be more influential in steering the two-term former president’s economic policy.
Lula has been silent on whether or not he supports the candidacy of Ilan Goldfajn, a respected former central bank governor nominated for the IDB presidency by outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.
And in a sign that the incoming government hoped to replace Goldfajn with a closer ally, he authorized his leftist former Finance Minister Guido Mantega, a close adviser for years, to write to the United States and IDB governors to seek support to delay the Nov. 20 election.
Lula’s stance on the presidency of the IDB, Latin America’s biggest development bank, coupled with recent comments focusing on social spending over fiscal discipline and questions about his economic team, suggest his leftist aides hold more sway, insiders and experts said.
“Lula has a vast array of people around him, but judging from his speeches and the recent noise around the IDB appointment, it seems he is listening more to the old-school PT advisors for now,” said Arthur Carvalho, chief economist at TRUXT Investimentos in Rio de Janeiro.
That was “worrying,” Carvalho added, “because previously he surrounded himself with a more diverse set of advisors.”
DASHED HOPES
Lula gave the green light for Mantega’s letter despite support for Goldfajn’s candidacy from Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, two sources told Reuters.
Alckmin, a…