Tarcísio reiterates his support for Flávio for Presidency and says that his project is in SP

The governor of São Paulo, ‍Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), said this Thursday that he supports ⁠senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) for the Presidency of the Republic in the election in October this ‍year and said that his project is to be re-elected to command the São Paulo government.

In an interview with journalists after visiting a road project run by the São Paulo government in Suzano, in Greater São Paulo, Tarcísio denied ever having the intention of running for President and said that a publication on Instagram of a video in which he said that Brazil needs ‘a new CEO’, the English term for the executive president of a company, was a ‘rant against the PT.

‘I never gave up (on my candidacy for President), because I never had that candidacy. There was never this project. ‌It’s funny that you don’t believe it, but I’ve always said that my project is re-election, ‌re-election, re-election’, said the governor.

‘For me, Flávio is a big name, I already said that he is my candidate, he will have our support. The message there is a message of venting against the PT’, he added.

The first lady of São Paulo, Cristiane Freitas, commented on the governor’s message stating: ‘our country needs a new ‌CEO, my husband!’

The episode on social media generated interpretations that Tarcísio was placing himself as a candidate for Planalto, contradicting the nomination of former president Jair Bolsonaro de ​Flávio, his eldest son, as a candidate from the Bolsonaro camp for President.

‘When you say that Brazil needs a new CEO, and I was at a business event that’s why I mentioned CEO, we are saying: there’s no more PT, because the PT is already outdated’, said Tarcísio.

‘The right will be united around one name and my name is Flávio.’

Earlier, in conversation with journalists in Brasília after visiting Bolsonaro at the Federal Police Superintendency in Brasília, where the former president is serving a sentence for an attempted coup d’état, Flávio said that his candidacy has no turning back and that he will seek to unite his political field.

Bolsonaro’s decision to nominate Flávio as his candidate, passing over Tarcísio, generated turbulence in the financial market, which sees the senator as having a lower capacity than the governor to attract centrist voters. According to this assessment, Flávio’s candidacy would facilitate the re-election of Lula, whose economic policy is criticized by market agents.

Genial/Quaest research released on Wednesday showed Flávio well ahead of Tarcísio in the first round scenario in which both appear as candidates. However, his performance is similar to that of the governor against Lula in the first round scenarios in which only one of them appears as a candidate and in the second round simulations against the PT member.

The survey showed that the PT member has an advantage of 9 percentage points over Flávio and 12 points over Tarcísio in the first round simulations in which only one of the two oppositionists is a candidate. In the second round scenarios, Lula is 5 percentage points ahead of Tarcísio and appears with 7 percentage points more than Flávio.