PT approves manifesto with guidelines for 2026 elections and nods to the center
The Workers’ Party (PT) approved, this Sunday (26), its manifesto with guidelines for this year. The document focuses on comparing the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) with that of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in addition to establishing a plan of what should be highlighted in a possible fourth term for the PT member.
Lula did not participate in the congress, as initially planned by the party. The president underwent health procedures last Thursday (23), in São Paulo, and remains at rest. Former Finance Minister and pre-candidate for the government of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, sat on the right side of PT president, Edinho Silva, at the ceremony. To overcome the absence of the President of the Republic, the PT broadcast a speech by Lula at a global meeting of progressive leaders, in Barcelona, held last week.
Unanimity
The manifesto was unanimously approved by the activists present at the congress this Sunday. The text is more succinct than the party program and avoids controversy. The program will be discussed in the coming weeks by the party’s national directory. One of the main points that ended up being removed from the manifesto was the defense of reform of the financial system, specifically mentioning the need for this type of change because of the scandal involving Banco Master.
The party maintained other points in the manifesto. The line of three central axes of the national development project – reconstruction of the State’s role as a driver of development (mark of the left), resumption of economic growth with income distribution (mark of the PT governments) and productive, technological and environmental transition (adopted with more emphasis from the 2022 campaign) – was maintained.
Re-election is a PT priority
The manifesto treats the re-election of President Lula as a “central axis of political tactics”. It also proposes seven essential reforms – two of which were added over the weekend to cater to other wings of the party. The document included the defense of political and electoral reform since Friday the 24th; a tax; one technological; a reform of the Judiciary; and an administrative one.
The party leadership added, this Sunday, to the list of essential reforms, agrarian reform, “guaranteeing food sovereignty”, and reform of the communications sector, “ensuring compliance with the Constitution, which prohibits monopolies in the sector”.
Another point maintained is the defense of a “permanent generational transition” in the party itself, with a limit on the number of mandates (a maximum of two in the same position and three in total participation in the same instance). The final version also talks about guaranteeing “at least 50% of women in deliberation spaces”. The program proposal did not talk about guaranteeing internal renewal in the party or gender equality in the party’s decision-making positions.
Approach to the center
The minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations (SRI), José Guimarães, said that the objective of the manifesto is to “call the center to join Lula”, avoiding controversies that could alienate sectors that are not on the left from the PT candidacy.
“The manifesto has to be the centrality of speaking to the country and calling on the center to collaborate with Lula, which is fundamental,” said the minister upon arrival at the PT congress this Sunday.
President Lula was involved in the construction of the manifesto throughout last Friday, the 24th, mainly, as was the Palácio do Planalto. The government, for example, asked for the document to make more comparisons between the administrations of Lula and Bolsonaro. The government also requested that the reform of the financial system be left out of the manifesto.
In a video sent to the PT congress, shown on Friday, the 24th, Lula said that the party has to “promise the things that we have the ease and possibility of doing” in its program. It was a charge in relation to some controversial points included in the text that ended up being excluded in the latest version.
