Firing is a dish best served fried
Another man down in the Jair Bolsonaro administration. Joaquim Levy, the former World Bank director who was leading the National Development Bank (BNDES), resigned on Sunday morning. The move came after the president publicly said Mr. Levy was hanging onto his job by a thread, after naming a high-ranking officer during the Workers’ Party era to a director’s position.
Economists and businessmen were unanimous in defending Mr. Levy.
For having served for less than a year as Dilma Rousseff’s Finance Minister, Mr. Levy was always treated with mistrust by the president. But the real reason for his firing is less ideological than it seems. Within the administration, many in the Economy Ministry complained about his reluctance to pay back the bank’s debts with the Department of Treasury, and to sell off stock in the bank’s portfolio.
The episode consolidates a modus operandi for firings within the Bolsonaro administration: before leaving their jobs, officials are tossed into the frying pan so their reputations will suffer. It happened to the three cabinet members fired by Jair Bolsonaro, and the same fate awaited Mr. Levy—who, unlike the others,...