Moro leaves the Union and decides to join Bolsonaro’s PL

Senator and former judge Sergio Moro decided to leave União Brasil and join Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party to run for government of Paraná in this year’s elections. The commitment was signed on Wednesday (18), but the official announcement should only take place on Tuesday (24).

The movement comes after the senator aligned himself with pre-candidate for president Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), who decided to break with governor Ratinho Júnior’s PSD and support Moro in the state election, given the failure of negotiations for a broader alliance with Gilberto Kassab’s party.

On social media, Flávio Bolsonaro celebrated the announcement of the party’s new candidate in Paraná. “It is a great joy to be here with my friend Sergio Moro. He is our pre-candidate for governor of Paraná. A person who shares the same agenda and understands the moment Brazil is going through”, he stated in the publication.

Behind the scenes, Flávio’s allies assess that Paraná is a key player in the presidential dispute and that Moro’s entry into the PL helps to reduce Ratinho Jr.’s bargaining power in national negotiations, in addition to reorganizing the right-wing camp in the South.

Membership can also be seen as the “stone” that seals the past dispute between Moro and Bolsonaro’s party. Despite being a supporter of the former president, upon being elected senator in 2022, Moro was the target of a request for impeachment from the PL, alleging that the former judge committed economic abuse during the dispute.

The following year, the party alleged that Moro had received undue benefit by using resources from the pre-campaign for the presidency of the Republic. The case was closed after the Superior Electoral Court decided that the former judge did not commit any irregularities in the dispute.