Rain becomes campaign theme with Boulos and Nunes exchanging criticism

The heavy rains that hit Greater São Paulo this Friday, 11th, and left 1.6 million properties without electricity became the theme of the electoral campaign for the City Hall of the capital of São Paulo. Federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), who is running in the second round of the 2024 elections against mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), criticized the president for his reaction to the damage caused by the storm and for “outsourcing his responsibilities”. The mayor, on the other hand, attributed the delay in restoring electricity to Enel, the service concessionaire in the capital of São Paulo and the metropolitan region.

Due to the rain, both Boulos and Nunes changed their campaign commitments. The PSOL candidate changed his schedule to visit regions affected by the lack of electricity, while the mayor spent the morning at the Smart Sampa program monitoring center, where the crisis is managed, and in the afternoon he took to the streets to monitor Enel’s work in the recovery of energy in the city.

To the press, Boulos attributed the blackout in the city to the “lack of planning” by the Nunes administration. “The mayor only worried about doing something in the election year,” said the PSOL candidate. Boulos defined his opponent as “a mayor who doesn’t do the basics”. “São Paulo needs to have a mayor with a pulse and the size of the city. A mayor who also does his part and doesn’t just outsource his responsibilities.”

Nunes, in an interview with journalists, lamented that Boulos “makes political use of people’s pain” and satirized his opponent by saying that, while “he hasn’t slept all night”, the federal deputy gave an interview “with a swollen face, looking like he had just woken up.” “What he is doing is sealing it,” said the mayor.

Nunes attributed the delay in servicing properties in the capital of São Paulo that remain without electricity to Enel, stating that, in order to remove trees that fell and damaged the wiring, it is first necessary for Enel to disconnect the electrical network around the site. . The concessionaire, in turn, is responding to calls of this kind late. The company does not provide deadlines for restoring service. On the morning of this Saturday, the 12th, one in five of the company’s customers remained affected by the blackout.

Rain could have effects on the election race

In the assessment of political scientist and director of the Analytical Social, Political and Economic Research Institute (Ipespe), Vinicius Alves, the rains that hit the city obviously bring more challenges for Nunes, who is in charge of the municipal administration.

“It is expected that the way the mayor faces this situation will act as a test for him during the electoral process”, he states.

Alves adds that the electoral impacts will depend on Nunes’ performance in managing the crisis in the coming hours. “It makes perfect sense for Boulos’ campaign and society in general to pay greater attention to this event as we are in an electoral period”, he adds.

Likewise, political scientist and researcher at the Laboratory of Electoral Studies, Political Communication and Public Opinion (DOXA), Bruno Schaefer, highlights that this type of event has the potential to impact elections, especially due to the way in which campaign strategies Boulos and Nunes took a stand in the face of the blackouts and disruptions caused by the rains.

“Boulos could, for example, benefit from Nunes’ ineptitude, depending on the strategy”, he highlights.

source: Estadão Conteudo