PT is left without a candidate for the government of RS for the first time, after pressure from Lula

For the first time since it was founded, the PT will not have its own candidate for the government of Rio Grande do Sul. Under pressure from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and threat of intervention, the party gave up leading the ticket and will now support former deputy Juliana Brizola, from the PDT.

The agreement was closed this Thursday, the 9th, after direct interference from Lula because, in order to join his campaign, the PDT demanded as its main counterpart the approval of the PT members for Juliana’s name. After many protests and criticism of the framework coming from Palácio do Planalto, the former president of the National Supply Company (Conab) Edegar Pretto (PT), gave up his candidacy.

The tendency is for Pretto to be vice-president on the ticket headed by Juliana, granddaughter of former governor Leonel Brizola. But there is a new problem to manage: the PSOL, which supported Pretto, disagrees with the agreement with the PDT and threatens to leave the alliance.

In a political resolution approved on Tuesday, 7th, the PT decided to determine that political tactics in Rio Grande do Sul be built together with the PDT and allied parties, under the leadership of Juliana Brizola. The opposition front is made up of PDT, PT, PSB, PSOL, PCdoB, PV and Rede.

“There is nothing more important than the re-election of President Lula”, says an excerpt from the document that was reviewed by the PT National Executive.

Dirceu and Pomar disagree about ‘intervention’

The decision was criticized by Valter Pomar, leader of the Articulação de Esquerda movement and director of the Perseu Abramo Foundation. Pomar publicly disagreed with former minister José Dirceu, who was impeached by the Chamber in 2005 and will run again for deputy in the October election.

Shortly before, Dirceu had released a note arguing that the Rio Grande do Sul case did not constitute an “intervention”. In the text, the former minister cited examples of other states where the PT, in the name of the national alliance, will support candidates from other parties, such as Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Paraná.

“The disqualification of the political debate and the undue accusations, including against the PDT pre-candidate (Juliana Brizola), of violation of party democracy by those who defend the application of national policy to Rio Grande do Sul are serious,” wrote Dirceu.

Pomar countered the former minister. “Dirceu doesn’t think it’s an intervention. Normal: in general, those who commit violence don’t recognize it as such”, he criticized, citing the intervention that took place in the PT in Rio de Janeiro, in 1998, when Dirceu was president of the party.

At the time, the candidate chosen by the PT in Rio to run for the Rio de Janeiro government was Vladimir Palmeira. But, to support Lula for the Presidency – and have Leonel Brizola as his vice-president -, the PDT demanded that the PT remove Palmeira from the race and send Anthony Garotinho to the Guanabara Palace.

After saying that he would go to the end and would not go back, Pretto sought to alleviate the crisis, this Thursday, the 9th. “We will present ourselves, from now on, as a political front, and not individually”, he highlighted, after announcing his withdrawal. “We are a political front, and a very important platform, and that is what we will continue to mobilize.”

The PT governed Rio Grande do Sul from 1999 to 2003, with Olívio Dutra, and from 2011 to 2015, with Tarso Genro. In addition, he administered Porto Alegre City Hall for 16 consecutive years. In this campaign, one of the arguments for PT members to resist supporting Juliana Brizola was the fact that the PDT was part of the government of Eduardo Leite (PSD), classified by them as “neoliberal and right-wing”. The party handed over the team positions only recently.

Leite wanted to compete for Lula’s succession, but decided to stay ahead of Piratini until the end of his term after being passed over by the PSD command, which decided to launch the candidacy of the former governor of Goiás Ronaldo Caiado. Now, Leite wants to nominate his vice-president, Gabriel Souza (MDB), as a candidate for the Gaucho government.

Voting intention survey released on March 17 by the Real Time Big Data institute shows deputy Luciano Zucco (PL), an ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in first place, with 31% of preferences. Juliana Brizola appears in second, with 24%; Pretto, in third, with 19%, and Gabriel Souza, in fourth, with 13%.