Brazil’s Workers Party Struggles to Find Strong Candidates for 2020 Elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – One of the first guidelines of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the Workers Party (PT) as soon as he left prison three weeks ago, was for the party to launch as many mayoral candidates as possible in 2020, particularly in cities where there is TV electioneering time.

Lula wants to use the municipal elections to advocate for the leftist governments as well as for himself. However, the lack of competitive candidates, adverse reactions by party officials, and political interests of regional leaders, make it difficult to comply with the guidelines.

In São Paulo, the country’s largest city, the PT is still looking for a candidate. An important party wing, led by Lula, is investing in the return of former mayor Marta Suplicy. They know that the move is risky, but they believe that, with Lula’s approval, the coordination may succeed.

Otherwise, pressure for Fernando Haddad to take over the task continues. The former mayor has already said on several occasions that he did not want to be a candidate. He argues that he needs to organize his personal life and that three elections in a period of six years is too much – in 2015 he ran for re-election to City Hall and in 2018 for the Presidency.

The scenario is repeated in Belo Horizonte, where deputy Patrus Ananias, explicitly named by Lula, is reluctant. Patrus says he prefers to focus on national issues rather than dispute the capital of Minas Gerais, a position he has already held. Part of the Minas Gerais PT argues that the party should support deputy Áurea Carolina (PSOL).

In Rio, deputy Benedita da Silva, also named by Lula, is yet another who is reluctant to enter the race. According to the president of PT in Rio de Janeiro, Washington Quaquá, the party will follow Lula’s guidance and commission research. Meanwhile, it continues negotiating with Marcelo Freixo (PSOL).

“Benedita is stronger in the periphery. Freixo, in the city’s southern zone. We can go on running two of our own candidacies and up ahead reach a single and strong candidacy,” said Quaquá.

In Porto Alegre, none of the three former leftist mayors named by Lula as alternatives to an alliance with Manuela D’Avila (PC do B) was encouraged. National leaders are betting on support for Haddad’s former vice presidential candidate. In Curitiba, for lack of names, the PT should support Roberto Requião (MDB).

In Salvador, the PT is working to enlist the president of Esporte Clube Bahia, Guilherme Bellintani, but governor Rui Costa intends to use next year’s election to strengthen his constituency in the Legislative Assembly. Costa may have up to three candidates.

One of them is deputy Pastor Sargento Isidório (Avante). “It is possible that he may be an alliance candidate. The PT already holds the candidate in the largest city in the interior, which is Feira de Santana,” said Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA).

According to deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), coordinator of the party’s Electoral Working Group (GTE), the PT “will hardly have no candidate” in at least ten capitals, most of them in the Northeast. Guimarães includes São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Salvador in the list, alongside Recife, Fortaleza, Manaus, Goiânia, Natal, Aracaju, and Teresina.

“We want competitive candidates to win. The main officials, those who are committed to the PT, cannot hide.”

Guimarães says the goal is to nationalize the dispute in the main cities, turning the 2020 municipal elections into a bridge to defeat Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.

Lula’s order to launch as many candidates as possible does not make alliances with other leftist parties unfeasible and serves to keep the party at the moment of definitions. “Do you think anyone will want to negotiate with us if we do not include our names? First, include the names. The second stage is to negotiate,” he said.

Jaques Wagner agrees. “Lula is talking about having candidates in as many cities as possible, not all of them. This conclusion that it is a policy of close alliances, in my opinion, is wrong”.

Source: Estado de S. Paulo.

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