The alliance of progressive forces, under the command of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to defeat Jair Bolsonaro (no party) in 2022, goes through the PSB’s efforts to cooperate and shelter politicians from different spectrums to build a broad platform in the next election.
In recent weeks, three new affiliations moved the PSB and gave more strength to the party, federal deputies Marcelo Freixo (RJ) and Tabata Amaral (SP), as well as Flávio Dino, governor of Maranhão. Political scientist Rudá Ricci drew a sketch of the ideological trends within the legend.
In the North and Northeast and Rio de Janeiro, the forces are on the left, especially with the arrival of Flávio Dino. In Paraná, the PSB is “completely aligned with the right”. In São Paulo, Márcio França and Tabata Amaral are trumps on the right-wing in São Paulo. In Minas Gerais, “the PSB is closed with the group of (federal deputy) Aécio Neves (PSDB)”. In Rio de Janeiro, Freixo pulls the party to the left.
::”Freixo is going to rescue RJ from the militarism and the militia”, says the national president of the PSB::
“The political support project of (former president Luiz Inácio) Lula obviously passes through the PT, the PSB and the PSD of Kassab. Lula’s central triangle must be this one. From it, Lula adds other values. The big question of this new PSB, articulated by Lula and Siqueira, is Márcio França”, analyzes Ricci, who sees the dispute in São Paulo as fundamental for the party’s destiny.
“If you break Márcio França’s legs, you isolate the PSB from Minas and Paraná. Then you can enter these directories and do a realignment of the PSB. Márcio França is on the seesaw, but he is on the right, he is not aligned with this new PSB. It will be a heavy game for the PSB next year, it will be a very violent dispute”, he concludes.
In São Paulo, France has been working behind the scenes to remove Lula’s party and the PT and bring it closer to a candidate idealized as a “third way”, but still without a face, one year before the election. To do so, it would have the support of Tabata Amaral and João Campos (PSB), Mayor of Recife (PE). Lula’s ally, Carlos Siqueira, president of the PSB, declined to answer questions from the Brazil in fact.
Pernambuco became an important pole for the party’s dispute. Lula was in the state last August 16, when he met with governor Paulo Câmara (PSB) and João Campos. As soon as he announced his affiliation with the party, on June 14 of this year, Freixo also went to visit the co-religionists from Pernambuco.
Disagreements
In his first year at the head of the Recife City Hall, João Campos (PSB) faced a wave of protests from public servants on account of the Social Security Reform project that he presented, and was approved, for the municipality’s civil servants. Newly joined the party, Tabata Amaral voted in favor of the Social Security Reform of the Michel Temer government (MDB), a proposal rejected by left-wing parties and politicians in the country.
For Marcelo Freixo (PSB-RJ), these contradictions cannot be in the north of the party or in the broad front that is being forged to face Jair Bolsonaro (no party) in the 2022 election. In response to the ideological distance between Amaral and Campos, the federal deputy stated that “it is time to seek what we have in common, not what separates us”.
“The Social Security Reform debate began during the Lula administration. It was even what gave rise to the PSOL, the split within the PT. So, if we stay, within the left, with this rationale of looking for who is more revolutionary and who is more to the left, fascism thanks and wins the election. It’s time for maturity and it’s time for more adult thinking. In the PT government, we also had protests, we had much more right-wing alliances that were defended by the PT, when I wasn’t even there. But what’s the point of referring to this?”, asks Freixo.
For the federal deputy Alessandro Molon (PSB-RJ), affiliated to the party since 2017, the Congress of the PSB, scheduled for April 2022, will determine the union of divergent forces in the same project.
“The acronym will approve a new party program. Our program is 74 years old, it is an honorable and dignified program, but it is outdated. This updated program, being approved now, will necessarily have to be the center of convergence for the entire party. It’s no use approving this program now, people get elected with this program in 2022 and don’t act in accordance with it after being elected”, he warned.
Freixo believes that, regardless of the individual positions of the party members, there will be adherence to the project “of a political front to defeat fascism”. “The tendency of the PSB is to walk with Lula, I defend the support for Lula and the construction of a program and a government of a broad, democratic front that brings all the democratic forces that can give Lula governability. I think Rio de Janeiro is more consolidated, with PT, PSB, PCdoB and Rede united.”
Like Ricci, deputies believe that Márcio França’s decision in São Paulo is the missing piece on the anti-Bolsonaro board. “In São Paulo, this chess is more delicate. Haddad has been talking a lot with Márcio França and I think that São Paulo can be defined from a national alliance as well, the configuration of this alliance can help São Paulo. This depends on the alliances that the Lula project will make and on the choice of its deputy”, defends Freixo.
Molon, who should run for the Senate in 2022, believes that the PSB should have its own candidacy in the race for Palácio dos Bandeirantes. “I think Márcio França can be a candidate for governor in São Paulo. Just today, I read that (Geraldo) Alckmin could be a candidate for the Senate. In such a scenario, it is possible.”
Last Thursday (30), journalist Mônica Bergamo, from Folha de São Paulo, reported that the PT wants an agreement with Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB). The former governor would give up on the race for Palácio dos Bandeirantes, leaving the way open for Fernando Haddad (PT), who would be the main force against vice governor Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB), who will be the candidate of João Doria (PSDB), current agent in the state.
Also according to the note, in exchange, the PT would launch a candidate with low potential for the Senate, to facilitate the visit of Alckmin, who will leave the PSDB, to Brasília. This Friday (1), the former governor denied Bergamo and, through a political ally, the former mayor of Santos Paulo Barbosa, guaranteed that he will run for the government of São Paulo.
Edition: Vinícius Segalla
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