Haddad confirms that Lula must go to the STF if the AGU considers the overturning of the IOF to be illegal

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad confirmed this Friday (27) that the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will appeal to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) if the Attorney General's Office (AGU) considers that the overturning of the IOF decree by Congress was unconstitutional.

The possibility of the government resorting to the courts was confirmed by the AGU earlier, which stated that it had been called by the president to analyze a possible legal measure against the decision of the deputies and senators that suspended the tax increase last Wednesday (25) .

“If the answer is positive, he should appeal, because it is a constitutional usurpation. You have the Constitution saying that the prerogative of the IOF belongs to the executive branch, the Constitution itself says that the presidential decree must respect the parameters established by law, and that was done,” said Haddad in an interview with GloboNews .

According to the minister, the president cannot even give up appealing against the Congress' decision because he has the prerogative defined by the Constitution – just as the legislature itself does.

The minister also said that he does not understand what could have happened after the meeting he had with the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), which defined the compensatory measures for the change in the decree, reducing the application of the new IOF rates.

At first, Motta and Alcolumbre seemed satisfied with the measures discussed. But later, they began to criticize them – especially the Speaker of the Chamber, who later sent messages saying that he would not accept any increase or new taxes, such as the taxation of financial investments that had previously been exempt.

From then on, there was a backstage discussion about what would be a power play between the Executive and Legislative branches, with a view to the 2026 elections. Haddad denied that this had happened, but questioned what interests could be behind Motta and Alcolumbre's criticisms.

“Who is interested in ruining this scenario [of an economy with good indicators such as falling inflation and unemployment]? Just for electoral reasons? In other words, we are going to ruin a construction that was built with Congress,” he asked.

Haddad stressed that all the economic measures that led to the current scenario of good indicators were agreed upon with Congress, where the proposals he made were discussed and changed by the members of Congress. According to him, there is rarely a major conflict with the members of Congress, as occurred with the discussion of the payroll tax relief.

Haddad criticizes Bolsonaro

The minister also stressed that President Lula was aware of all negotiations between the government and Congress, including the measures that were overturned. And he denied that he had been negligent, citing former PresidentJair Bolsonaro (PL) who allegedly did not participate in the political negotiations.

“A president who didn’t know where he was on the planet. He didn’t talk to a political leader, he didn’t shake hands with a head of state. [...] Bolsonaro outsourced the government, he wasn’t aware of what was happening,” he said, citing former minister Ciro Nogueira, from Bolsonaro’s Civil House, who criticized the Lula government’s performance in political articulation a day earlier, and that Haddad doesn’t even have the support of his own party.

More information coming soon.