In the month gasoline peaked, Flávio assured voters: “it will not change”

In October 2016, Petrobras's management, headed by Pedro Parente, appointed by Temer, adopted PPI, import parity pricing, and stated: “we will not charge prices below this international parity”^[3]. From July 2017, prices could be adjusted daily^[6].

In 2021, Petrobras changed gasoline prices 16 times, five of them downwards; the cumulative increase for the year was 68.6%^[7]. Oil was also rising: Brent crude went from US$ 42 on average in 2020 to US$ 101 in 2022^[8].

In May 2022, a litre of gasoline cost an average of R$ 8.67 in today's money, the highest price since 2016^[1]. On the 18th, Flávio, a senator and his father's campaign coordinator, assured voters: “The pricing policy certainly will not change”^[2].

Two months earlier, after an 18.8% increase in gasoline prices^[9], Jair Bolsonaro called the link “terrible for consumers”, but said he had “a policy of not interfering”^[10]. Part of the subsequent fall came from the LC 194 tax cut, estimated at R$ 0.69 per litre^[5].

In May 2023, Petrobras's management, headed by Jean Paul Prates, appointed by Lula, replaced PPI with a strategy that avoids passing on “short-term volatility” in oil prices and exchange rates^[4][11]. The external benchmark was not abandoned entirely, Prates said^[12]. In 2024, Petrobras changed gasoline prices only once^[13].

Under PPI, pump prices changed by more than 3% from one month to the next 21 times in six and a half years; afterwards, 4 times in just over three years^[1]. Without adjusting for inflation, prices per litre have risen since 2023, partly because of the federal tax reinstated by the Lula government^[14].

In April 2022 and April 2026, a barrel of oil cost almost the same in today's reais: R$ 595 and R$ 593^[8][15]. At the pump, a litre of gasoline cost R$ 8.66 and R$ 6.77^[1]. Taxes were not the same, and the gasoline subsidy only began in late May 2026^[16].

The Lula government also spent on subsidies and tax cuts in 2026^[17]. Flávio's program does not mention Petrobras^[18], and his campaign says it has no plan to privatize it^[19]. In 2022, at the peak, he assured voters the policy would not change. Now he is asking for your vote.