SAO PAULO, Brazil — President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday named a close aide who is widely liked by Brazilian and foreign investors to head his transition team, a move intended to calm the nervous financial markets.
The transition team leader will be Antonio Palocci, a doctor and former mayor of Ribierao Preto in Sao Paulo state. Palocci coordinated da Silva’s campaign platform, moving the veteran leftist toward the political center with more moderate positions.
“He’s been one of the key members of a team of advisers, which has been giving a very positive spin to markets,” said Christopher Garman, a political analyst in Sao Paulo.
During the presidential campaign, Brazil’s currency lost about 70 percent of its value against the dollar on investors’ fears that da Silva, the Workers’ Party candidate, would lead Brazil away from free-market economic reforms if he became president.
Palocci said da Silva would maintain broad economic policies such as low inflation and balanced budgets. He also promised that Brazil would not follow Argentina’s ruinous example of defaulting on government debt.
— Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
