BH has pre-campaign with Zema undecided and Duda clash – 05/25/2023 – Politics

The pre-campaign for Belo Horizonte City Hall in 2024 indicates a clash between a trans candidate and a Bolsonarist competitor, the current mayor at risk of not running for re-election and the main political character of Minas, Governor Romeu Zema (Novo), undecided.

The initial movement for command of one of the main cities in the country also involves the mayor, who is without a party, and two parties that were once powerful in Minas Gerais, PT and PSDB, as supporting actors.

Duda Salabert (PDT), who in 2022 became one of the first transgender women elected to the Chamber of Deputies, has articulated her candidacy and already sees state deputy Bruno Engler (PL), party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as a possible opponent.

Since her first electoral victory, in 2020, when she was elected councilwoman, Duda has been the target of Bolsonarists.

After being the most voted in the city in that election, Duda was called “he” in a speech in the plenary by the then newly elected Nikolas Ferreira (PL), a Bolsonarist, who was condemned in the first instance to pay compensation for transphobia .

Nikolas, now also a federal deputy, is Bruno Engler’s first-time ally.

The two made the double call in past elections, traveling around the state asking for votes, one for a seat in Congress and the other for a seat in the Legislative Assembly.

The state deputy came second in the 2020 mayoral race, won by Alexandre Kalil (PSD) in the first round.

“Bruno Engler was in second place because I didn’t run in that election. All polls showed my name in second place. If I had run, there would have been a second round between Kalil and me”, says Duda.

Engler counters by saying that, as a candidate for state deputy, he had many more votes than the pedetista in the race for a seat in the Chamber. “This figure Duda Salabert, if he is going to win the election, he had a third of the votes that I had.”

Another character in the current pre-campaign political scene in Belo Horizonte is the mayor of the city, Fuad Noman (PSD), chosen by Kalil as his deputy in 2020. Noman took office when the former mayor left the city hall to run for governor of the state , last year. Kalil was defeated in the first round by Zema.

Little more than a year after Noman took office, Kalil’s inner circle, which is part of the conversations surrounding next year’s elections, is debating whether the current mayor is the best name to put in the municipal race.

The mayor did not respond to questions raised by the report.

A complicating factor for the current president comes from the City Council. Noman and the president of the House, Gabriel Azevedo (without a party) do not understand each other about a city hall bill that tries to reduce the price of bus tickets in the capital through the payment of subsidies to companies in the sector.

On April 23, the amount went from R$4.50 to R$6. The increase occurred less than a year after another bill authorized the municipality to pay a subsidy so that the ticket price was not readjusted.

Azevedo, who advocates a review of the City Hall’s contract with bus companies, is also among the pre-candidates for City Hall.

The councilor claims that the clash has nothing to do with next year’s election. “I want to put together a broad front to run for mayor”, he says, who says he received invitations from 12 parties to join.

In his second term as councillor, Azevedo emerged in politics when he was part of a group of young people called “Turma do Chapéu”, created by PSDB militancy to act in the campaign of ally Marcio Lacerda, from PSB, for re-election, which ended up victorious in 2012 The group’s trademark was the use of Panama hats by its members.

Today, among toucans, the trend is that the name to be put in the dispute is that of former state deputy João Leite. He was a mayoral candidate in three elections: 2000, 2004 and 2016, losing all of them.

The state president of the PSDB, federal deputy Paulo Abi-Ackel, says that the party celebrates the possibility of Leite being a candidate. “It’s a name that appeals to the conservative electorate,” he argues.

Abi-Ackel, however, points out that the party maintains a good relationship with the president of the City Council and also with Mayor Noman, who was secretary in toucan administrations in the state government.

The PSDB won an election for mayor of the capital, in 1988, and governed Minas Gerais for three consecutive terms from 2003.

Another party that was once powerful in Minas Gerais, the PT, does not have, at least so far, a pre-candidate for mayoralty.

The president of the caption in the capital, Guima Jardim, says that the acronym, in principle, will launch a name for next year’s dispute. The leader, however, does not rule out the possibility of supporting another party.

Regarding the possibility of an alliance with Duda Salabert, who defends a union between parties that he classifies as progressive, Jardim says that no one has yet emerged as a possible candidate.

“What I perceive is that the electoral process has not yet decanted anyone. We are about a hundred days away from a PT national government. We cannot anticipate processes. It is very premature for Duda to be a reference, or someone from the PSOL or PT”, it says.

The municipal president of PC do B, Jô Moraes, has a similar position. “In politics, projects are not built around one or another person. They are built around a movement that at a given time will aggregate”, he argues.

Governor Romeu Zema did not respond to questions sent by the report about his position in the 2024 election.

According to vice-governor Professor Mateus (Novo), one of its main articulators, there is not yet a scenario drawn on how the political group will position itself in the election.

In 2020, Novo launched as a candidate for mayoralty Rodrigo Paiva, who ranked fifth in the dispute, ahead of PT competitors, Nilmário Miranda, and PSDB, Luísa Barreto.